title: Synthesis of tetrahydrocannabinols based on an indirect 1,4-addition strategy.
abstract: The synthetic procedure presented for the preparation of the title compounds requires 1,4-addition of bulky cuprates to cyclohexenones and subsequent reaction with electrophiles. However, the enolates generated by BF(3).OEt(2)-assistance suffer from lack of nucleophilicity. To circumvent this problem, we developed an indirect method consisting of the following three steps: (1) iodination of the cyclohexenones at the alpha position; (2) BF(3).OEt(2)-assisted 1,4-addition of cuprates (Ar(2)Cu(CN)Li(2), Ar = aryl) followed by quenching the enolates with water; (3) reaction of the alpha-iodo-beta-aryl-cylohexanones thus formed with EtMgBr to generate magnesium enolates. The enolates thus generated in this way showed a high reactivity toward ClP(O)(OEt)(2) to furnish enol phosphates. The aforementioned procedure was also applied to a synthesis of optically active Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol. In addition, a naphthalene analogue of the latter compound was also synthesized in a similar way.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomolecular Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Anthony D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: William
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kobayashi