Treatment of N-substituted phthalimide-derived hemiaminal with alkyllithium led to tetrahydroisoquinolones with high diastereoselectivity. Mechanistic studies furnish persuasive evidence that the present ring-enlarging reaction proceeds via tautomerization of the hemiketal moiety and the resulting ketone undergoes an intramolecular nucleophilic addition reaction.
Lewis acid-promoted tandem desulfurization and hydroxylation of γ-phenylthio-substituted lactams: novel synthetic strategy of isoindolobenzazepine alkaloid, chilenine
and hydroxylation reactions to generate γ-hydroxylated lactams without the ring-opened products in extremely high yields, respectively. This process was further applied to the totalsynthesis of an isoindolobenzazepinealkaloid, chilenine, by featuring the elaboration of the functionalized phthalimide derivative.