Ring-opening metathesis of some strained bicyclic systems; stereocontrolled access to diolefinated saturated heterocycles with multiple stereogenic centers.

Ring-opening metathesis (ROM) of various unsaturated, constrained bicyclic ring systems has been investigated with the use of commercial ruthenium-based catalysts. Starting from various cyclodienes, the corresponding derived bicyclic lactone, lactam, and isoxazoline derivatives were submitted to ROM under ethenolysis. These functionalized, strained bicyclic systems afforded novel highly-functionalized diolefinated heterocyclic scaffolds in ROM reactions with stereocontrol, through the conservation of the configuration of the stereogenic centers of the starting compounds.