Manipulating the enone moiety of levoglucosenone: 1,3-Transposition reactions including ones leading to isolevoglucosenone

The manipulation of the enone moiety associated with the biomass-derived, homochiral and now abundant compound levoglucosenone (1) is described. While the trichloroacetimidates derived from the allylic alcohols 3 and 4 failed to engage in Overman-type rearrangements, certain ester derivatives reacted in the presence of Pd[0]-catalysts to give regio-isomeric mixtures of β,γ-unsaturated malonates or ketones, the structures of which were confirmed by single-crystal X-ray analyses. In other sequences involving 1,3-transposition reactions, an operationally simple means for converting compound 1 into isolevoglucosenone (2) is described.[Figure