4,5-Seco-4,6-cyclosteroids. III. Observations on the course of reductive rearrangement of 6β-Bromo-4β,5-epoxy-5β-cholestan-3β-ol

Abstract

It has been shown that reductive rearrangement of 6β-bromo-4β,5-epoxy- 5β-cholestan-3β-ol (I) to 4,5-seco-4,6-cycle-6β-cholestane-3β,5α-diol (IXa) with lithium aluminium hydride in tetrahydrofuran proceeds via 6β-bromo-5β-cholestane-3β,5-diol (IIa). Relevant reactions of the latter and the corresponding 3-ketone are discussed.     Similar conversion of the 3-epimer of (I) into 4,5-seco-4,6-cyclo- 6β-cholestane-3α,5α-diol (XIIIa) in high yield indicates that reductive rearrangement of the 6β-bromo-5β-hydroxy moiety proceeds without participation of the 3-aluminate complex. Some derivatives of (XIIIa) are described.     Experimental conditions required for the conversion of (I) into (IXa) are defined.     Combined evidence indicates that the reaction proceeds in a concerted manner by essentially base-catalysed, 1,3-elimination of hydrogen bromide from diol (IIa) with 4,5-bond migration to give the formal intermediate 3β-hydroxy-4,5-seco-4,6-cyclo-6β-cholestan-5-one (VI), further reduced to (IXa).