Chan rearrangement

The Chan rearrangement is a chemical reaction that involves rearranging an acyloxy acetate (1) in the presence of a strong base to a 2-hydroxy-3-keto-ester (2).



This procedure was rediscovered and employed in the Holton Taxol total synthesis.

Reaction mechanism
The methylene group in the reactant with adjacent carbonyl and acetyl substituents is acidic and can be deprotonated by strong non-nucleophilic bases such as lithium tetramethylpiperidide or lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) as in an aldol reaction. The thus formed enolate then gives a nucleophilic acyl substitution with the adjacent carbonyl of the acetyl group through a short lived intermediate oxirane. Acidic workup liberates the free hydroxyl group.