Electrochemical Corey–Winter reaction. Reduction of thiocarbonates in aqueous methanol media and application to the synthesis of a naturally occurring α-pyrone

• Ernesto Emmanuel López-López,
• José Alvano Pérez-Bautista,
• Fernando Sartillo-Piscil and
• Bernardo A. Frontana-Uribe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 547–552, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.41

• -(pent-1-enyl)-α-pyrone and trans-6-(pent-1,4-dienyl)-α-pyrone, which are naturally occurring metabolites isolated from Trichoderma viride and Penicillium, in high chemical yield and with excellent stereo selectivity. Keywords: Corey–Winter reaction; electrosynthesis; 6-pentyl-2H-pyran-2-ones; reduction

• (Scheme 1) [4]. Despite this advantage, the low availability and high cost of this reagent [5] makes this reaction difficult to be used in industry. Previously, starting from the versatile chiron 7,3-lactone-xylofuranose (7,3-LXF) [6], the first non-biological synthesis of chiral 6-pentyl-2H-pyran-2-ones