Synthetic plant growth regulators. V. The synthesis and crystal structure of a hybrid gibberellin-helminthosporic acid

Abstract

(3aRS,4RS,6RS,8aSR)-5-Methyleneoctahydro-4H-3a,6-methanoazulene-4-carboxylic acid (7) has been synthesized and a detailed comparison made between its molecular structure and that of gibberellic acid (4). Indane-5-carboxylic acid (8) was converted by an alternating sequence of reduction and isomerization into the hydrindene acid (11). The diazomethyl ketone derived from (11) was transformed to cyclopropyl ketone (12) which was reduced by Li/NH₃ with stereochemical inversion at the β-carbon to give a 1:3 mixture of ketones (13) and (14) respectively. Ketone (14) was then converted into the title acid (7) by a standard procedure.    

Molecules of (7) crystallize in space group P2/c with a 7.782(1), b 11.055(1), c 14.559(3) Ǻ, β 116.05(1)°. The structure was solved by direct methods and refined by full-matrix least squares to a final R value of 0.053.