Ring Contractions of 3-Azido-4H-quinolizin-4-ones and 3-Azido-4H-azino[1,2-x]pyrimidin-4-ones: A Novel Approach to 3-Aminoindolizines and Their Aza Analogues.

Thermal transformations of 3-azido-4H-quinolizin-4-ones 4a,b and 3-azido-4H-azino[1,2–x]pyrimidin-4-ones 4c,d, available from the corresponding heteroarylamines 2a–d, were studied. The reaction products were mostly dependent on the solvent. Thus, heating of 3-azido-1-cyano-4H-quinolizin-4-one (4a) in toluene afforded 2-(pyridin-2-yl)fumaronitrile 5a, whereas 3-amino-1-cyano-4H-quinolizin-4-one (8) was obtained on treatment of 4a in a mixture of toluene and trifluoroacetic anhydride. However, heating of 4a in acetic anhydride and in acetic acid resulted in a ring contraction to produce 3-(diacetylamino)indolizine-1-carbonitrile 6a and 3-(acetylamino)indolizine-1-carbonitrile 7a, respectively. Similarly, ring contractions took place on heating ethyl 3-azido-4-oxo-4H-quinolizin-1-carboxylate 4b and 3-azido-4H-azino[1,2–x]pyrimidin-4-ones 4c,d in acetic anhydride or acetic acid to produce the N-acetylated 3-aminoindolizine derivatives 6b, 7b and 3-aminoimidazo[1,2–x]azine derivatives 6c,d in 30–89% yields. The structures of compounds 5–8 were determined by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction.