Transformation of unsaturated fatty compounds by ene-yne cross-metathesis

The production of raw materials from natural renewable resources is a topic of current interest as petroleum chemical substitutes and for its contribution to sustainable development. Within this trend the use of unsaturated esters, arising from transesterification of vegetable oils, is attractive. The selective cleavage by cross metathesis of this unsaturated fatty esters, catalyzed by ruthenium-alkylidene complexes, constitutes a potentially useful and powerful transformation.
Among metathesis transformations, the ene-yne cross metathesis represents a novel route to the formation of a conjugated dienes. These new conjugated dienes can be further transformed into added value chemicals by Diels Alder reactions or allylic substitution.
We will present our results concerning the cross metathesis of unsaturated esters with different functionalized alkynes in “one-pot” reactions and their subsequent transformation by Diels-Alder and allylic substitution reactions.