Syntheses of Macrocyclic Amides from L-Amino Acid Esters by RCM*

A series of succinate-derived macrocyclic amides(1) was synthesized via ring-closing metathesis(RCM) as the key step. The substrate included 12 to 15 members. The metathesis precursors were obtained from the amide coupling of tert-butyl 3-carboxyhex-5-enoate(2) with numerous side-chain alkenylated amino acid esters of general type(3) derived from L-lysine and L-ornithine.