Construction of perhydro indol-2-ones by a methoxide catalyzed deacetylation-Michael-aldol cascade.

An efficient, stereoselective Michael-aldol cascade for the one-pot construction of the perhydro indol-2-one bicyclic ring system using an acetate protected doubly-activated pyrrole-2-one pro-nucleophile and alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds has been developed. Initiated by a methoxide deacetylation in methanol at room temperature, the cascade is easy to perform, stereoselective, efficient and broad in scope to this synthetically relevant structure.