Toward general access to the aspidosperma-type terpenoid indole alkaloids: synthesis of the key 3,3-disubstituted piperidones through enantioselective intramolecular heck-type reaction of chloroformamides.

An enantioselective intramolecular Heck-type reaction of chloroformamides has been developed for the synthesis of 3,3-disubstituted piperidones. The desired piperidone was formed in the presence of a palladium catalyst, an optically active phosphoramidite ligand, K3PO4 and Ag3PO4. The obtained piperidone was converted to epieburnamonine.