Acyl donors

The yeast pyruvate decarboxylase is rather specific with respect to the acyl moiety that is added to the aldehyde. Only a few 2-oxo acids can be used as acyl donors besides pyruvic-acid39. For example, treatment of benzaldehyde with 2-oxobutanoic acid and 2-oxopentanoic acid, respectively, and prewashed Saccharomyces cerevisiae gave the corresponding (/ )-acyloin derivatives in 15 25% yield with an enantiomeric excess >95%. 

Later on the crucial role played by the solvent was enlightened in the protease-catalyzed resolution of racemic amines [26]. As shown in Table 1.3, the ratio of the initial rates of acylation of the (S)- and the (Ji)-enantiomers or racemic a-methyl-benzylamine (9) varied from nearly 1 in toluene to 7.7 in 3-methyl-3-pentanol. Similarly, the same authors found a significant solvent effect for the subtilisin-catalyzed transesterification of racemic 1-phenylethanol (10) using vinyl butyrate as acyl donor (Table 1.4 [27]). 

The research group of Backvall employed the Shvo s ruthenium complex (1) [21] for the racemization. This complex is activated by heat. For the KR they used p-chlorophenyl acetate as the acyl donor in combination with thermostable enzymes, such as CALB [20] (Figure 4.7). This was the first practical chemoenzymatic DKR affording acetylated sec-alcohols in high yields and excellent enantioselectivities. In the best case 100% conversion (92% isolated yield) with 99% ee was obtained. This method was subsequently applied to a variety of different substrates and it is employed (with a different ruthenium complex) by the Dutch company DSM for the large-scale production of (R)-phenylethanol [22]. 

Very recently the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley-Oppenauer (MPVO) reaction has been exploited for the racemization of alcohols using inexpensive aluminum-based catalysts. Combination of these complexes with a lipase (CALB) results in an efficient DKR of sec-alcohols at ambient temperature. To increase the reactivity of the aluminum complexes, a bidentate ligand, such as binol, is required. Also, specific acyl donors need to be used for each substrate [31] (Eigure 4.9). 

Kita et al. have made use of the structure of the acyl donor to develop a domino transformation, a DKR followed by an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction [32]. They... 

Jacobs et al. employed an acidic zeolite catalyst for the racemization of sec-alcohols, which occurs through the formation of carbocations [44] (Figure 4.19). The KR is catalyzed by CALB in the presence of vinyl octanoate as acyl donor. DKR takes place successfully in a biphasic system (octane/H2O, 1 1) at 60 °C. 

Several reports on DKR of cyanohydrins have been developed using this methodology The unstable nature of cyanohydrins allows continuous racemization through reversible elimination/addition of HCN under basic conditions. The lipase-catalyzed KR in the presence of an acyl donor yields cyanohydrin acetates, which are not racemized under the reaction conditions. 

In 1992, Oda et al. reported a one-pot synthesis of optically active cyanohydrin acetates from aldehydes, which were converted to the corresponding racemic cyanohydrins through transhydrocyanation with acetone cyanohydrin, catalyzed by a a strongly basic anion-exchange resin [46]. The racemic cyanohydrins were acetylated by a lipase from P. cepacia (Amano) with isopropenyl acetate as the acyl donor. The reversible nature of the base-catalyzed transhydrocyanation enabled continuous racemization of the unreacted cyanohydrins, thereby effecting a total conversion (Figure 4.21). 

A very elegant approach has been developed by Kanerva et al. DKR of N-hetrocyclic a-amino esters is achieved using CAL-A [54]. Racemization occurs when acetaldehyde is released in situ from the acyl donor. In this case aldehyde-catalyzed racemization of the product cannot occur (Figure 4.28). This is one of the few examples reported for DKR of secondary amines (For a recent example see the above text and Ref. [38]). 

Figure 6.2 Separation of products by (a) cyclic anhydrides as acyl donors and (b) fluorous phase technique.

Despite its widespread application [31,32], the kinetic resolution has two major drawbacks (i) the maximum theoretical yield is 50% owing to the consumption of only one enantiomer, (ii) the separation of the product and the remaining starting material may be laborious. The separation is usually carried out by chromatography, which is inefficient on a large scale, and several alternative methods have been developed (Figure 6.2). For example, when a cyclic anhydride is the acyl donor in an esterification reaction, the water-soluble monoester monoacid is separable by extraction with an aqueous alkaline solution [33,34]. Also, fiuorous phase separation techniques have been combined with enzymatic kinetic resolutions [35]. To overcome the 50% yield limitation, one of the enantiomers may, in some cases, be racemized and resubmitted to the resolution procedure. 

Figure 6.45 Activated acyl donors for irreversible acylation of alcohols.

Combination of lipase-catalyzed transesterification with unsaturated vinyl esters as acyl donors and ring-closing metatheses (RCMs) have also been reported [146-148]. Two groups applied this strategy for the synthesis of goniothalamin from cinnamaldehyde [147,148]. The key steps were a transesterification using vinyl acrylate as acyl donor, followed by an RCM, as depicted in Figure 6.55. 

Normally ethyl acetate is used for the acylation of primary amines, in many cases, as acyl donor and solvent. Other acylating agents such as alkyl methoxy acetates are... 

The power ofbiocatalysts for the production of chiral compounds can be elevated to a second stage when proper use of the process leads to a larger number of different enantioenriched products from the same reaction. Some efforts have been made in this direction because the enzyme can be selective to either nucleophile or acyl donor. The elegancy of the reaction is increased when the process is carried out for the resolution of both. Scheme 7.20 depicts this possibility [38]. 

The chemoenzymatic synthesis of the analgesic U-(—)-50,488 [41] and new C2-symmetric bisaminoamide ligands derived from N,N-disubstituted trans-cyclohexane, ,2-diamine [41] has been possible by a CALB-catalyzed resolution using ethyl acetate as solvent and acyl donor [42]. 

Other derivatives to obtain P-aminoacids are the corresponding carboxamides. Thus, for the preparation of all enantiomers of as and traws-2-aminocydopentane-and cydohexanecarboxamides, the best results obtained are using this acyl donor and CALB [54]. An unexpected change in enantiopreference accompanied by low enantioselectivity was observed when PSL (ds-cydohexane substrate) or CALA (ds-cyclopentane and cydohexane substrates) replaced CALB (Scheme 7.30). 

The DKR of secondary alcohols can be efficiently performed via enzymatic acylation coupled with simultaneous racemization of the substrates. This method was first used by BackvaU for the resolution of 1-phenylethanol and 1-indanol [38]. Racemization of substrate 18 by a mthenium catalyst (Scheme 5.11) was combined with transesterification using various acyl donors and catalyzed by C.antarctica B Hpase. From aU the acyl donors studied, 4-chlorophenyl acetate was found to be the best. The desired product 19 was obtained in 80% yield and over 99% ee. 

Besides allylic substitution reactions it was also shown that [Fe(CO)3(NO)] 76 is catalytically active in transesterification reactions under neutral conditions (Scheme 24) [70]. Various activated acyl donors 97 can be used to give rise to the corresponding carboxylic esters 100 in good to excellent yields. This reaction proceeds in the absence of additional ligands in nonpolar solvents, for example, hexane. Mechanistically, the reaction is assumed to proceed via a Fe-acyl-complex 98 (Scheme 24). 

By the addition of different acyl donors to the medium, different penieillins can be biologically synthesized. For example, penicillin V is made by a similar process to benzylpenieillin, but with phenoxyacetic add as the precursor instead of PAA. In the biosynthetic pathway, the a-aminoadipyl side-chain of isopeniciUin N is replaced by a phenoxyacetyl group. 

Typically the reaction was carried out as follows to a mixture of lipase in the IL were added this racemic alcohol and vinyl acetate as the acyl donor. The resulting mixture was stirred at 35°C and the reaction course was monitored by GC analysis. After the reaction, ether was added to the reaction mixture to form a biphasic layer, and product acetate and unreacted alcohol were extracted with ether quantitatively. The enzyme remained in the IL phase as expected (Fig. 2). Two months later, Kim and co-workers reported similar results and Lozano and Ibora " reported other examples of lipase-catalyzed reaction in June. Further Park and Kazlauskas reported full details of lipase-catalyzed reaction in an IL solvent... 

We succeeded in showing that recycling of the enzyme was indeed possible in our IL solvent system, though the reaction rate gradually dropped with repetition of the reaction process. Since vinyl acetate was used as acyl donor, acetaldehyde was produced hy the hpase-catalyzed transesterification. It is well known that acetaldehyde acts as an inhibitor of enzymes because it forms a Schiff base with amino residue in the enzyme. However, due to the very volatile nature of acetaldehyde, it easily escapes from the reaction mixture and therefore has no inhibitory action on the lipase. However, this drop in reactivity was assumed to be caused by the inhibitory action of acetaldehyde oligomer which had accumulated in the [bmim][PFg] solvent system. In fact, it was confirmed that the reaction was inhibited by addition of acetaldehyde trimer. =... 

One of the most important characteristics of IL is its wide temperature range for the liquid phase with no vapor pressure, so next we tested the lipase-catalyzed reaction under reduced pressure. It is known that usual methyl esters are not suitable for lipase-catalyzed transesterification as acyl donors because reverse reaction with produced methanol takes place. However, we can avoid such difficulty when the reaction is carried out under reduced pressure even if methyl esters are used as the acyl donor, because the produced methanol is removed immediately from the reaction mixture and thus the reaction equilibrium goes through to produce the desired product. To realize this idea, proper choice of the acyl donor ester was very important. The desired reaction was accomplished using methyl phenylth-ioacetate as acyl donor. Various methyl esters can also be used as acyl donor for these reactions methyl nonanoate was also recommended and efficient optical resolution was accomplished. Using our system, we demonstrated the completely recyclable use of lipase. The transesterification took place smoothly under reduced pressure at 10 Torr at 40°C when 0.5 equivalent of methyl phenylthioacetate was used as acyl donor, and we were able to obtain this compound in optically pure form. Five repetitions of this process showed no drop in the reaction rate (Fig. 4). Recently Kato reported nice additional examples of lipase-catalyzed reaction based on the same idea that CAL-B-catalyzed esterification or amidation of carboxylic acid was accomplished under reduced pressure conditions. ... 

The DKRs of (J-azido alcohols and p-hydroxy nitriles were also accomplished hy employing 1 and CALB with PCPA as the acyl donor. The DKRs of p-azido alcohols were performed at 60°C while those of (3-hydroxy nitriles required higher temperature (100°C) primarily to enhance the racemization rate. The optical purities of products were satisfactory in all cases. In the case of p-hydroxy nitriles, dehydrogenation lowered the yield. 

The catalytic alcohol racemization with diruthenium catalyst 1 is based on the reversible transfer hydrogenation mechanism. Meanwhile, the problem of ketone formation in the DKR of secondary alcohols with 1 was identified due to the liberation of molecular hydrogen. Then, we envisioned a novel asymmetric reductive acetylation of ketones to circumvent the problem of ketone formation (Scheme 6). A key factor of this process was the selection of hydrogen donors compatible with the DKR conditions. 2,6-Dimethyl-4-heptanol, which cannot be acylated by lipases, was chosen as a proper hydrogen donor. Asymmetric reductive acetylation of ketones was also possible under 1 atm hydrogen in ethyl acetate, which acted as acyl donor and solvent. Ethanol formation from ethyl acetate did not cause critical problem, and various ketones were successfully transformed into the corresponding chiral acetates (Table 17). However, reaction time (96 h) was unsatisfactory. 

After succeeding in the asymmetric reductive acylation of ketones, we ventured to see if enol acetates can be used as acyl donors and precursors of ketones at the same time through deacylation and keto-enol tautomerization (Scheme 8). The overall reaction thus corresponds to the asymmetric reduction of enol acetate. For example, 1-phenylvinyl acetate was transformed to (f )-l-phenylethyl acetate by CALB and diruthenium complex 1 in the presence of 2,6-dimethyl-4-heptanol with 89% yield and 98% ee. Molecular hydrogen (1 atm) was almost equally effective for the transformation. A broad range of enol acetates were prepared from ketones and were successfully transformed into their corresponding (7 )-acetates under 1 atm H2 (Table 19). From unsymmetrical aliphatic ketones, enol acetates were obtained as the mixtures of regio- and geometrical isomers. Notably, however, the efficiency of the process was little affected by the isomeric composition of the enol acetates. 

Stereoselective acylahon of racemic hydroxyalkylsilanes 102 was achieved using a crude papain preparation and, surprisingly, 4-phenylpentanoic acid as the acyl donor. The ees of the products 103 and the recovered substrates varied from 30 to 99% (Equation 49). ... 

In turn, a lipase-promoted acylahon of prochiral substrates 104, using lipases from Candida cylinracea and Chromobacterium viscosum and methyl isobutyrate or acetoxime isobutyrate as the acyl donors, gave the product 105 in yields up to 80% and with ees up to 75% (Equahon 50). ... 

Immobilized PLE was applied to promote stereoselective acetylation of prochiral bis(hydroxymethyl)methyl-phenylgermane 106 (R = Me) with vinyl acetate as a solvent and acyl donor. Later on, the same group reported that each enantiomer of hydridogermane monoacetates 107 (R = H) was obtained either via acetylation of the bis-hydroxy derivative 106 (R = H) or hydrolysis of the corresponding diacetate 108 (R = H). In both methods, porcine pancreatic lipase was used and, obviously, each reaction led to a different enantiomer of 107 (Equation 51). ... 

A potential liability associated with such reductive hydroacylations resides in the fact that only one acyl residue of the symmetric anhydride is incorporated into the coupling product. For more precious carboxylic acids, selective acyl transfer from mixed anhydrides is possible. Mixed anhydrides derived from pivalic acid are especially convenient, as they may be isolated chromato-graphically in most cases. In practice, mixed anhydrides of this type enable completely branch-selective hydroacylation with selective delivery of the aromatic and a,()-unsalurated acyl donors (Scheme 19). 

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