Partial Syntheses of Cardenolides and Cardenolide‐Analogues. XII. Synthesis of 21‐Substituted Cardenolides by Oxidation of 17β ‐ (3‐Furyl)‐Steroids and Nucleophilic Substitution
Oxidation of 17β‐(3‐furyl)‐5β, 14β‐androstane‐3β, 14β‐diol 3‐acetate (2b) with chromic acid yielded the 14,21‐epoxy‐cardenolide 4. After elimination of the 14β‐hydroxy group of 2b the unsaturated furyl derivative 5, when treated with chromic acid, gave a mixture of the diastereomeric unsaturated 21ξ‐hydroxy‐cardenolides 8a which were converted with N‐bromoacetamide to a mixture of the 14β, 15β‐epoxy‐21ξ‐hydroxy‐cardenolides 9a.
The hydroxy‐cardenolides 8a and 9a were acetylated to the 21ξ‐acetoxy‐cardenolides 8b/8c and 9b/9c, respectively, and they reacted with primary and secondary amines to give the corresponding N‐substituted 21ξ‐amino‐cardenolides 11a‐‐11c and 12b, respectively. When reacted with p‐toluenesulfonyl chloride both 8a and 9a yielded the 21ξ‐chloro‐cardenolides 11d/11e and 12c/12d, respectively, the chlorine of which could easily be substituted by SN1‐ and SN2‐reactions.