This chapter is divided into six portions according to the type of reaction used in the condensation of the A fragment with the CD portion. The first section concerns the reaction between an anionic A ring with a keto function in the CD portion and discusses, for the most part, Johnson's first estrone synthesis. In Section 7.2 the process is reversed such that an anion formed from the CD portion reacts with A; Section 7.3 discusses the use of the Wittig reaction in steroid total synthesis and includes some recent, promising work by a Russian group as well as brief mention of Inhoffen's classic work in the vitamin D field (a detailed presentation of the latter, as well as some recent work by Lythgoe on the synthesis of calciferol, has been omitted because the products are, for the present purposes, not considered true steroids). Section 7.4 discusses the recent, intriguing use of CD enamines in steroid total synthesis, and Section 7.5 presents the preparation of some thiasteroids. The last section describes some brief, miscellaneous schemes which have been reported in, as yet, little detail.
Condensation of Ring-A Anionic Fragments with CD KetonesThe first steroid total synthesis of Johnson resulted in die preparation of seven of the eight possible racemic stereoisomers of estrone and was 142 14 15 16Scheme 7-1 * Lythgoe and his co-workers have recently employed a similar reaction in their extensive researches in the total synthesis of calciferol and its relatives. They utilized lithium acetylides rather than the current potassium salts [4].