Investigation of Methods for Seven-Membered Ring Synthesis: A Practical Synthesis of 4-Oxo-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-4H-cyclohepta[b]furan-3-carboxylic Acid

Several synthetic routes to 4-oxo-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-4H-cyclohepta[b]furan-3-carboxylic acid (1) are described, and the scale-up issues with each route are discussed. Seven-membered ring formation is a key issue with these syntheses, and several strategies are presented, including preparation from cycloheptane-1,3-dione, ring-expansion routes, Dieckmann cyclization, acetylene-furan [4 + 2] cycloaddition, and Friedel−Crafts cyclization. Two of the routes were scaled in the pilot plant to provide kilogram quantities of the title compound. The first scale-up route is outlined in Scheme 2 and utilizes a ring-expansion strategy to prepare cycloheptane-1,3-dione from cyclopentanone, via a [2 + 2] cycloaddition between dichloroketene and the silyl enol ether of cyclopentanone. The diketone is converted to the title compound by condensation with ethyl bromopyruvate and base, followed by acid hydrolysis. This route was efficient on laboratory scale but encountered problems upon scale-up due to a competing fragmentation pathway in the Zn/AcOH-mediated retro-aldol of cyclobutanone 11. The second, more successful scale-up route is described in Scheme 15, and involves Friedel−Crafts acylation of 3-carboethoxyfuran selectively at the 5-position. Reduction, lactonization, and hydrogenolysis provide acid 43, which is cyclized via a second Friedel−Crafts reaction to form the seven-membered ketone.