Production of alkaloids without the isolation of intermediates

1. A process for producing a compound comprising Formula (II) or salt thereof, the process comprising:

a. contacting a compound comprising Formula (I) with a ring forming agent and a proton donor to form a compound comprising Formula (V);

b. contacting the compound comprising Formula (V) with R 16 OCOX to form a compound comprising Formula (VI); and

c. contacting the compound comprising Formula (VI) with an hydrolysis agent to form the compound comprising Formula (II) according to the following reaction scheme:

wherein no intermediates are isolated and,

R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 5 , R 8 , and R 8′ are independently chosen from hydrogen, hydrocarbyl, substituted hydrocarbyl, halogen, and {—}OR 15 ;

R 4 is {—}OR 15 ;

R 6 , R 7 , R 16 , and R 17 are independently chosen from hydrogen, hydrocarbyl and substituted hydrocarbyl;

R 14 is chosen from hydrogen, and {—}OR 15 ;

R 15 is chosen from hydrogen, hydrocarbyl, and substituted hydrocarbyl; and

X is chosen from fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein R 3 is alkyl or alkoxy; and R 6 , R 7 , R 16 , and R 17 are independently alkyl or substituted alkyl.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the ring forming agent is an orthoester chosen from an orthoformate and an orthoacetate; the proton donor has a pKa of less than about 6; and step (a) is conducted in the presence of a polar organic solvent and at a temperature from about 40° C. to about 80° C.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein R 16 is methyl, ethyl, or propyl; X is chlorine or bromine; and step (b) is conducted at a temperature from about 0° C. to about 100° C.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the hydrolysis agent is a proton acceptor having a pKa greater than about 7; and step (c) is conducted at a temperature from about 60° C. and about 140° C.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein further comprising at least one solvent extraction step to yield an aqueous phase and an organic phase, the organic phase containing the reaction product.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein R 1 , R 2 , R 5 , R 8 , R 8′ , R 14 and R 15 are hydrogen; R 3 is {—}OCH 3 ; R 6 , R 7 , and R 17 are methyl; the ring forming agent is trimethyl orthoformate; the molar ratio of the compound comprising Formula (I) to trimethyl orthoformate is about 1:2; the proton donor is methane sulfonic acid; step (a) is conducted in the presence of methanol and acetonitrile as a solvent and at a temperature of 60-65° C. to yield a reaction mixture containing the compound comprising Formula (V); the reaction mixture containing the compound comprising Formula (V) is extracted with toluene to obtain an organic phase containing the compound comprising Formula (V); to the organic phase containing the compound comprising Formula (V) is added the compound comprising R 16 OCOX, wherein R 16 is ethyl and X is chlorine; the molar ratio of the compound comprising Formula (I) to the compound comprising R 16 OCOX is about 1:0.5; step (b) is conducted at a temperature of 60-65° C. to yield a reaction mixture containing the compound comprising Formula (VI); the reaction mixture containing the compound comprising Formula (VI) is extracted with water to obtain an organic phase comprising the compound comprising Formula (VI); to the organic phase comprising the compound comprising Formula (VI) is added sodium hydroxide as the hydrolysis agent, and a solvent mixture of dimethylsulfoxide and 1,2-propyldiol; step (c) is conducted at a temperature of about 120° C.; and the compound comprising Formula (II) or salt thereof has a yield of at least 40%.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein the C-5, C-9, C-13, and C-14 stereocenters of the compound comprising Formula (II) or the salt thereof are chosen from RRRR, RRRS, RRSR, RRSS, RSRS, RSRR, RSSR, RSSS, SRRR, SRRS, SRSR, SRSS, SSRS, SSRR, SSSR, and SSSS, respectively.

9. The process of claim 1 , further comprising contacting the compound comprising Formula (II) or salt thereof with a hydrolysis agent to form a compound comprising Formula (III) or salt thereof:

wherein R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 5 , R 8 , R 8′ , and R 14 are as defined in claim 1 .