Acidic Hydrolysis of an Amide

A) The acid hydrolysis of an amide produces a carboxylic acid and an amine. (B) The basic hydrolysis of an ester produces the salt of a carboxylic acid and an alcohol. 

Acid hydrolysis of an amide yields a carboxylic acid and an ammonium ion. The mechanism for acid hydrolysis is shown in Figure 12-36. Base hydrolysis of an amide, on the other hand, yields ammonia and a carboxylate ion. You can see this mechanism in Figure 12-37. To identify similarities, compare these mechanisms to the mechanisms for the hydrolysis of esters (refer to Figures 12-34 and 12-35). 

Problem-Solving Strategy Proposing Reaction Mechanisms 1007 Mechanism 21-8 Transesterification 1008 21-7 Hydrolysis of Carboxylic Acid Derivatives 1009 Mechanism 21-9 Saponification of an Ester 1010 Mechanism 21-10 Basic Hydrolysis of an Amide 1012 Mechanism 21-11 Acidic Hydrolysis of an Amide 1012 Mechanism 21-12 Base-Catalyzed Hydrolysis of a Nitrile 1014 21-8 Reduction of Acid Derivatives 1014... 

Esterification Using Diazomethane 966 Conversion of an Acid Chloride to an Anhydride 1001 Conversion of an Acid Chloride to an Ester 1001 Conversion of an Acid Chloride to an Amide 1002 Conversion of an Acid Anhydride to an Ester 1002 Conversion of an Acid Anhydride to an Amide 1003 Conversion of an Ester to an Amide (Ammonolysis of an Ester) 1003 Transesterification 1008 Saponification of an Ester 1010 Basic Hydrolysis of an Amide 1012 Acidic Hydrolysis of an Amide 1012... 

Hydrolysis. Hydrolysis of esters and amides is a common pathway of drug metabolism. The liver microsomes contain non-specific esterases, as do other tissues and plasma. Hydrolysis of an ester results in the formation of an alcohol and an acid hydrolysis of an amide results in the formation of an amine and an acid. The ester procaine, a local anaesthetic, is rapidly hydrolysed by plasma cholinesterases and, to a lesser extent, by hepatic microsomal esterase. An example of an amide which is hydrolysed, is the antiarrhythmic drug procainamide. Enalapril, a prodrug, is hydrolysed by esterases to the active metabolite enalapri-late, which inhibits the angiotensin-converting enzyme. 

The mechanism for acid hydrolysis of an amide is similar to that given in Section 17.7A for the acid hydrolysis of an ester. Water acts as a nucleophile and attacks the protonated amide. The leaving group in the acidic hydrolysis of an amide is ammonia (or an amine). 

Acid-Catalyzed Esterification 790 Base-Promoted Hydrolysis of an Ester 793 DCC-Promoted Amide Synthesis 798 Acidic Hydrolysis of an Amide 799 Basic Hydrolysis of an Amide 799 Acidic Hydrolysis of a Nitrile 801 Basic Hydrolysis of a Nitrile 801... 

Another alternative for preparing a primary amine from an alkyl halide is the Gabriel amine synthesis, which uses a phthalimide alkylation. An imide (—CONHCO—) is similar to a /3-keto ester in that the acidic N-H hydrogen is flanked by two carbonyl groups. Thus, imides are deprotonated by such bases as KOH, and the resultant anions are readily alkylated in a reaction similar to the acetoacetic ester synthesis (Section 22.7). Basic hydrolysis of the N-alkylated imide then yields a primary amine product. The imide hydrolysis step is analogous to the hydrolysis of an amide (Section 21.7). 

Nature has developed exquisite catalysts for a variety of reactions, for example, the hydrolysis of an amide bond. In the absence of a catalyst, amide bonds are extremely stable, making them ideal bonds to link amino acids in order to create... 

The two most important bile acids, cholic acid C24H40Os and desoxy-cholic acid C24H40O4, occur in ox bile in combination, partly with glycine and partly with taurine as glyco- and taurocholic and glyco- and tauro-desoxycholic acids. The linkage between the amino acids and the bile acids is of an amide nature. On hydrolysis the nitrogenous constituents are split off. 

Both esters and amides undergo hydrolysis reactions. In a hydrolysis reaction, the ester or amide bond is cleaved, or split in two, to form two products. As mentioned earlier, the hydrolysis of an ester produces a carboxylic acid and an alcohol. The hydrolysis of an amide produces a carboxylic acid and an amine. There are two methods of hydrolysis acidic hydrolysis and basic hydrolysis. Both methods are shown in Figure 2.9. Hydrolysis usually requires heat. In acidic hydrolysis, the ester or amide reacts with water in the presence of an acid, such as H2SO4. In basic hydrolysis, the ester or amide reacts with the OH ion, from NaOH or water, in the presence of a base. Soap is made by the basic hydrolysis of ester bonds in vegetable oils or animal fats. 

The acceleration of a reaction by a substance that is also consumed during the process. An example of such a phenomenon is the acceleration of a reaction by a Brpnsted acid present in large excess or maintained by a nearly constant concentration by a buffer. The acceleration of the hydrolysis of an amide by a certain Brpnsted acid is actually general acid promotion rather than general acid catalysis. The term promotion has been used as a synonym for pseudo catalysis. 

Acid-catalysed hydrolysis. Under acidic conditions, the hydrolysis of an amide resembles the acid-catalysed hydrolysis of an ester, with protonation of the carbonyl group yielding an activated carbonyl group that undergoes nucleophilic attack by water. The intramolecular proton transfer produces a good leaving group as ammonia. Simultaneous deprotonation by water and loss of ammonia yields a carboxylic acid. 

One of the possibilities to convert the amino nitrile (R,S)-3 to (5)-terMeucine (7) is shown in the reaction sequence of Scheme 25.3. Hydrolysis of the aminonitrile (R,S)-3 to the diamide 5 was performed in concentrated sulfuric acid. Removal of the phenylacetamide group using H2 and Pd-C gave (S)-tert-leucine amide (6). Acidic hydrolysis of the amide 6 yielded (S)-tert-leucine (7) in 73% overall yield for the 3 steps and an enantiomeric excess of >98%. The overall yield for this nonoptimized protocol is 66% based on pivaldehyde. Obviously, other routes to convert the amino nitrile to the amino acid can be envisaged. As an example, by heating the diamide in sulfuric acid, after dilution with water, the diacid can be obtained that, after hydrogenolysis, affords the amino acid in 2 steps from the amino nitrile 3. 

Therefore, it is important to use an excess of water so as to shift the equilibria to the products. In contrast to esters, the hydrolysis of an amide in acid does result in the formation of an... 

Substitutionally inert Co(m) or Ir(m) complexes have been used to measure directly the effect of Lewis acid activation on the hydrolysis of an amide [35-37], a nitrile [38] and a phosphate triester [39] (Figure 6.4). The p/C, of the cobalt-bound water molecule in 5 is 6.6 [40], Thus the upper limit for the rate-acceleration due to Lewis acid activation with this metal in the hydrolysis of esters, amides, nitriles and phosphates should be close to 109-fold. Although the observed rate accelerations for the hydrolysis reac-... 

Under acidic conditions the equilibrium for the hydrolysis of an amide is driven toward the products by the protonation of the ammonia or amine that is formed. Under basic conditions the equilibrium is driven toward the products by the formation of the carboxylate anion, which is at the bottom of the reactivity scale. The pH of the final solution may need to be adjusted, depending on which product is to be isolated. If the carboxylic acid is desired, the final solution must be acidic, whereas isolation of the amine requires that the solution be basic. Several examples are shown in the following equations. Also, note that the last step of the Gabriel amine synthesis, the hydrolysis of the phthalimide (see Section 10.6 and Figure 10.5 on page 365), is an amide... 

The hydrolysis shown in the following equation occurs readily in cold water. Explain why this reaction is so much faster than the hydrolysis of an amide, which requires heat and the presence of acid or base. 

The critical feature of the Edman degradation is that it allows the N-terminal amino acid to be removed without cleaving any of the other peptide bonds. Let s see how this occurs. The mechanism of the reaction is shown in Figure 26.3. First the nucleophilic nitrogen of the N-terminal amino acid attacks the electrophilic carbon of phenyl isothiocyanate. When anhydrous HF is added in the next step, the sulfur of the thiourea acts as an intramolecular nucleophile and attacks the carbonyl carbon of the closest peptide bond. II is the intramolecular nature of this step and the formation of a five-membered ring that result in the selective cleavage of only the N-terminal amino acid. The mechanism for this part of the reaction is very similar to that for acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of an amide (see Section 19.5). However, because no water is present, only the sulfur is available to act as a nucleophile. The sulfur is ideally positioned for intramolecular attack at the carbonyl carbon of the N-terminal amino acid, so only this amide bond is broken. 

Draw the important resonance contributors for both resonance-stabilized cations (in brackets) in the mechanism for acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of an amide. 

The most prominent green example, the regioselective hydrolysis of an amide on an industrial scale, is the production of penicillin. PenG acylase selectively hydrolyses the more stable amide bond, leaving the /Mactam ring intact [75, 76]. For a full discussion of this example see Chapter 1 (Fig. 1.37) and Chapter 8. Since the starting material is already enantiopure the enzyme induces no stereoinformation. In other industrial processes the enantioselectivity of the enzymes is used. This is, in particular, the case in the production of natural and unnatural amino acids. 

Figure 3.9 A simplified scheme for the mild acid (1 M HCl) hydrolysis of an amide containing molecule. Products of the hydrolysis for proteins and JV-acetyl glucosamine are shown. After Aluwihare et al. (2005).

Alternatively, biological methods of resolution are often used. A number of enzymes are available that selectively catalyze the hydrolysis of an amide formed from an S amino acid, while leaving the related amide from an R amino acid untouched. We can therefore resolve an f ,S mixture of an amino acid by forming an A -acetyl derivative, carrying out an enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis, and separating the S amino acid from unreacted R amide. 

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