Summaryrac.-Ajmalicine (31) and 19-epi-ajmalicine (30) have been synthesized by a convergent route from the preformed D, E-ring moieties 25 and 27 and tryptophyl bromide. Two syntheses of the trans-1 -benzoyl-3-vinyl-4-piperidineacetic acid (13), used in the preparation of 25 and 27, are also described.The alkaloids of heteroyohimbine family with normal configuration [ 11 are known to exhibit cardiovascular activities, and therefore, they have been subject of a continuous investigation by isolation from natural sources and synthesis. Ajmalicine . Optically active ajmalicine has been synthesized from naturally occurring elenolic acid [7]. In this report we describe the synthesis of' racemic ajmalicine (31) and 19-epiajmalicine (30) by assembling their molecules from the fully preformed D, E-ring moieties and tryptophyl bromide [8]. This synthetic approach is convenient for the preparation of differently substituted derivatives by using the appropriate tryptophyl bromides. The C ( 19) epimeric trans-D, E-ring moieties 25 and 27 were synthesized from the trans-l-benzoyl-3-vinyl-4-piperidine-acetic acid methyl esterThe ester 14 was obtained by two different methods, both leading to the intermediate chlorinated ester 8 (Scheme 1). In the first case [9], we started from the known trans-piperidoneacetic acid ester 1 [ 101, which was transformed in high yield to piperidineacetic acid ester 3. This was accomplished by 0-alkylation with triethyloxonium fluoroborate and reduction of the imino ether 2 with sodium borohydride. The functionalization of the ethyl side chain was effected by LofJerFreitag rearrangement: Chlorination of 3 or 4 with N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS) in ether gave in high yields the chloroamines 5 or 6, which on irradiation in trifluoro-(14).
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