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Dedicated to Professor Dieter Seebach on the occasion of his 65th birthday Carboalumination of alkynes in the presence of catalytic Cp 2 ZrCl 2 and H 2 O affords vinyl-alane intermediates, which serve as nucleophiles in the subsequent addition to enantiomerically enriched (tertbutyl)-and (para-tolyl)sulfinimines. This new in situ protocol produces two new CÀC bonds. Chiral allylic sulfinamides are obtained in high diastereoselectivity and in good yield. Cleavage of the chiral auxiliary leads to synthetically useful allylic amine building blocks, and facile oxidative degradation of the alkene moiety can be used as an approach toward amino acid derivatives and for assignment of absolute configuration.

The synthesis of mansonone F (1), an antimicrobial sesquiterpenequinone, is described. Starting from 2,5-dimethyl-1,4-naphthoquinone (5), the corresponding selectively protected hydroquinone 9 was prepared in four steps. Alkylation of 9 using chloroacetone, cyclization, and oxidation to the o-quinone completed the reaction sequence in 7.5% overall yield. The regioselectivity for the basic hydrolysis of hydroquinone diacetate 6 was discussed on the basis of MO calculations.

A seletividade observada (Nunes, R.L.; Bieber, L.W.; Longo, R.L. J. Nat. Prod. 1999, 62, 1600) na reação de hidrólise do diacetato de 2,5-dimetil-1,4-naftoidroquinona em condições reacionais brandas, meio básico, e que favorece a hidrólise do grupo 4-acetato, foi investigada utilizando métodos de ab initio e semiempíricos. Em fase gasosa (sistemas isolados) estes métodos não forneceram resultados consistentes com a seletividade observada. Com a inclusão dos efeitos do solvente (água) através do modelo de solvatação discreta no método semi-empírico AM1, foi possível estabelecer a estabilidade relativa dos intermediários tetraédricos e dos seus respectivos estados de transição como sendo a responsável pela seletividade observada. A origem da estabilidade relativa, e portanto, da seletividade está relacionada com as interação repulsivas entre o grupo substituinte 2-metil no anel do naftaleno e a metila do grupo 4-acetado, assim como o impedimento destes grupos à hidratação do grupamento iônico dos intermediários tetraédricos.The regioselectivity found in the mild basic hydrolysis of the 2,5-dimethyl-1,4-naphthohydroquinone diacetate (Nunes, R.L.; Bieber, L.W.; Longo, R.L. J. Nat. Prod. 1999, 62, 1600) has been studied with ab initio and semiempirical molecular orbital methods. In the gas phase (isolated systems), these methods were not able to provide results that could explain the observed selectivity. However, when the solvent effects were included in the AM1 method using the discrete solvation model it was possible to establish that this selectivity is due to the relative stability of the tetrahedral intermediates and their transitions states. The origin of this relative stability and thus of the observed selectivity is due to the repulsive interactions between the 2-methyl substituent in the naphthalene ring and the methyl group in the 4-acetate substituent, as well as their hindrance towards the hydration of the ionic group in the tetrahedral intermediates.