BIRCH REDUCTION OF STEROID SUBSTRATES VIA ALKALI METAL - SILICA GEL MATERIALS

摘要

Steroids are well known, medicinal relevant, chemical entities. There are numerous steroids which have fully or partially reduced ‘A’ rings. These fully or partially reduced ‘A’ rings have been reduced in the past through Birch and other dissolving metal reductions. Novel reducing conditions for steroid substrates are described which utilizes stabilized alkali metal-silica gel materials. The invention relates to a method for reducing a double bond within a steroid by contacting an unsaturated steroid having a phenyl ring with a Stage 0 or Stage I alkali metal-silica gel material in the presence of a proton source under reaction conditions sufficient to form a reduced steroid having a diene structure.