Nitroalkanes as Central Reagents in the Synthesis of Spiroketals

Abstract

Nitroalkanes can be profitably employed as carbanionic precursors for theassembly of dihydroxy ketone frameworks, suitable for the preparation of spiroketals. Thecarbon-carbon bond formation is carried out exploiting nitroaldol and Michael reactions,while the nitro to carbonyl conversion (Nef reaction) ensures the correct introduction of theketo group. Several spiroketal systems endowed with considerable biological activity canbe prepared using this synthetic strategy.

Keywords

• Conjugate addition
• Nef reaction
• nitroaldol reaction
• nitroalkanes
• spiroketals.