Synthesis of 2-Alkyl-2-(2-furanyl)-1,3-cyclopentanediones

2,2-Disubstituted 1,3-cyclopentanediones are versatile building blocks for synthesizing complex natural products with bicyclic structures including cyclopentane rings. The reported method for the synthesis of these compounds involves the semi-pinacol rearrangement of a Mukaiyama aldol adduct prepared from a ketone/ketal and 1,2bis(trimethylsilyloxy)cyclobutene. However, the adoption of alpha-oxy-functionalized ketones/ketals is quite difficult, as demonstrated by our experiments. To overcome this limitation of the method, 2-acylfuran derivatives were used as the reactants to synthesize 2,2-disubstituted 1,3-cyclopentanediones. Furthermore, two reaction conditions, that is, the use of 1.4 equivalents of a boron trifluoride-diethyl ether complex or 0.4 and 0.2 equivalent of trimethylsilyl triflate and methoxytrimethylsilane, respectively, were established for the conversion of 2-acylfurans into the corresponding 1,3-cyclopentanediones in acceptable yields. The transformations of the furan rings in the obtained products were also investigated.