Aceto acetic acid Ketone hydrolysis

It follows therefore that ethyl malonate can be used (just as ethyl aceto- acetate) to prepare any mono or di-substituted acetic acid the limitations are identical, namely the substituents must necessarily be alkyl groups (or aryl-alkyl groups such as CjHjCHj), and tri-substituted acetic acids cannot be prepared. Ethyl malonate undergoes no reaction equivalent to the ketonic hydrolysis of ethyl acetoacetate, and the concentration of the alkali used for the hydrolysis is therefore not important. 

The addition of active methylene compounds (ethyl malonate, ethyl aceto-acetate, ethyl plienylacetate, nitromethane, acrylonitrile, etc.) to the ap-double bond of a conjugated unsaturated ketone, ester or nitrile in the presence of a basic cataljst (s ium ethoxide, piperidine, diethylamiue, etc.) is known as the Michael reaction or Michael addition. The reaction may be illustrated by the addition of ethyl malonate to ethyl fumarate in the presence of sodium ethoxide hydrolysis and decarboxylation of the addendum (ethyl propane-1 1 2 3-tetracarboxylate) yields tricarballylic acid ... 

Excess acetate (C2) can be converted to the mobile ketone body energy source aceto-acetate (C4) and thence its reduced form hydroxybutyrate (C,) for transport throughout the body. Excess acetate can be carboxylated (via acetylCoA carboxylase) to form malonylCoA (C3), the donor for further C2 additions (with C02 elimination) in the anabolic synthesis of long chain fatty acids. Fatty acids are components of the phospholipids of cellular membranes and are also stored as triacylglycerols (triglycerides) for subsequent hydrolysis and catabolic fatty acid oxidation to yield reduced coenzymes and thence ATP (see Chapter 2). 

Ketone Hydrolysis.— The reactions of ethyl aceto acetate are important and lead to the extensive use of the compound as a synthetic reagent. With water in the presence of alkali or acid two distinctly different hydrolyses take place. When boiled with dilute alkali or dilute acid hydrolysis with loss of carbon dioxide occurs as follows ... 

Aceto Acetic Ester S3mtheses.— These alkyl and acyl derivatives of ethyl aceto acetate, both the mono- and the di- derivatives, react now on hydrolysis in the two ways given above, i.e.y by Xheketonehydro-lysis or the acid hydrolysis and we may thus obtain a large number of ketones and acids as desired. 

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