Aliphatic esters hydrolysis

Taft [109] postulated that the rate of aliphatic ester hydrolysis is a function of substituent type. Using methyl as a standard substituent, he compared, for example, the effects of larger alkyls, and interpreted the results by means of two constants characterizing the steric and polar behaviour of the alkyls. In copolymerization theory, the Taft equation was used many times to describe the relative reactivities (See Chap. 5, Sect. 5.2) in homologous polymer series... 

N-Benzylamides are recommended when the corresponding acid is liquid and/or water-soluble so that it cannot itself serve as a derivative. Phe benzylamides derived from the simple fatty acids or their esters are not altogether satisfactory (see Table below) those derived from most hydroxy-acids and from poly basic acids or their esters are formed in good yield and are easily purified. The esters of aromatic acids yield satisfactory derivatives but the method must compete with the equally simple process of hydrolysis and precipitation of the free acid, an obvious derivative when the acid is a solid. The procedure fails with esters of keto, sul phonic, inorganic and some halogenated aliphatic esters. 

The experimental details already given for the detection and characterisation of aliphatic esters (determination of saponification equivalents h3 diolysis Section 111,106) apply equally to aromatic esters. A sfight modification in the procediu-e for isolating the products of hydrolysis is necessary for i)henolic (or phenyl) esters since the alkaline solution will contain hoth the alkali phenate and the alkali salt of the organic acid upon acidification, both the phenol and the acid will be hberated. Two methods may be used for separating the phenol and the acid ... 

The Claisen condensation of an aliphatic ester and a thiazolic ester gives after acidic hydrolysis a thiazolylketone (56). For example, the Claisen condensation of ethyl 4-methyl-5-thiazolecarboxylate with ethyl acetate followed by acid hydrolysis gives methyl 4-methyl-5-thiazolyl ketone in 16% yield. 

Composition. Shellac is primarily a mixture of aUphatic polyhydroxy acids in the form of lactones and esters. It has an acid number of ca 70, a saponification number of ca 230, a hydroxyl number of ca 260, and an iodine number of ca 15. Its average molecular weight is ca 1000. Shellac is a complex mixture, but some of its constituents have been identified. Aleuritic acid, an optically inactive 9,10,16-trihydroxypalmitic acid, has been isolated by saponification. Related carboxyflc acids such as 16-hydroxy- and 9,10-dihydroxypalmitic acids, also have been identified after saponification. These acids may not be primary products of hydrolysis, but may have been produced by the treatment. Studies show that shellac contains carboxyflc acids with long methylene chains, unsaturated esters, probably an aliphatic aldehyde, a saturated aliphatic ester, a primary alcohol, and isolated or unconjugated double bonds. 

Taft began the LFER attack on steric effects as part of his separation of electronic and steric effects in aliphatic compounds, which is discussed in Section 7.3. For our present purposes we abstract from that treatment the portion relevant to aromatic substrates. Hammett p values for alkaline ester hydrolysis are in the range +2.2 to +2.8, whereas for acid ester hydrolysis p is close to zero (see Table 7-2). Taft, therefore, concluded that electronic effects of substituents are much greater in the alkaline than in the acid series and. in fact, that they are negligible in the acid series. This left the steric effect alone controlling relative reactivity in the acid series. A steric substituent constant was defined [by analogy with the definition of cr in Eq. (7-22)] by Eq. (7-43), where k is the rate constant for acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of an orr/to-substituted benzoate ester and k is the corresponding rate constant for the on/to-methyl ester note that CH3, not H, is the reference substituent. ... 

Hammet and collaborators140, 141 studied in more detail the hydrolysis of aliphatic esters with a cation-exchange resins as catalyst. They found that replacement of 70% of the hydrogen ions in a crosslinked polystyrenesulfonic add by cetyl-trimethylammonium ions had a specifically favorable effect on the effectiveness of the remaining hydrogen ions for the hydrolysis of ethyl-n-hexanoate. From these findings, the important contributions of the hydrophobic forces, in addition to the electrostatic forces, is clearly demonstrated. 

The above example serves to illustrate the basis of the procedure employed for the characterisation of aliphatic esters, viz., hydrolysis to, and identification of, the parent acids and alcohols. Most esters are liquids a notable exception is dimethyl oxalate, m.p. 54°. Many have pleasant, often fruit-like, odours. Many dry esters react with sodium, but less readily than do alcohols hydrogen is evolved particularly on warming, and a solid sodio derivative may separate on cooling (e.., ethyl acetate yields ethyl sodioacetoacetate ethyl adipate gives ethyl sodio cj/cZopentanone carboxylate). 

Dihydroepistephamiersine 6-acetate (7) was isolated from Stephania abyssinica as a homogeneous oil. The UV spectrum showed an absorption maximum at 286 nm, and the IR spectrum exhibited a band corresponding to an aliphatic ester carbonyl group at 1725 cm-1 (20). The H-NMR data are summarized in Table II. In chemical investigations, hydrolysis of 7 with barium methoxide gave an alcohol identical with 6-dihydroepistephamiersine (17), which on further treatment with mineral acid gave the known alkaloid, stephasunoline (17). Thus structure 7 was proposed for 6-dihydroepistephamiersine 6-acetate (20). 

Mammalian esterases have been classified into three groups according to specificity for substates and inhibitors (110). In terms of overall hydrolytic activity in mammals, the most important class of esterases is that of the B-esterases, which are principally active with aliphatic esters and amides. A-Esterases are important for aromatic esters and organophosphorus esters, and C-esterases are active with acetyl esters. In general, the specificity of mammalian esterases is determined by the nature of substituent groups (acetyl, alkyl, or aryl) rather than the heteroatom (O, N, or S) that is adjacent to the carboxy group. That is, the same esterase would likely catalyze hydrolysis of an ester, amide, or thioester as long as the substituents were identical except for the heteroatom (110). 

Thus a distinction was provided between simple esterases, such as fiver esterase, which catalysed the hydrolysis of simple aliphatic esters but were ineffective towards choline esters. The term 1 cholinesterase was extended to other enzymes, present in blood sera and erythrocytes of other animals, including man, and in nervous tissue, which catalysed the hydrolysis of acetylcholine. It was assumed that only one enzyme was involved until Alles and Hawes2 found that the enzyme present in human erythrocytes readily catalysed the hydrolysis of acetylcholine, but was inactive towards butyrylcholine. Human-serum enzyme, on the other hand, hydrolyses butyrylcholine more rapidly than acetylcholine. The erythrocyte enzyme is sometimes called true cholinesterase, whereas the serum enzyme is sometimes called pseudo-cholinesterase. Stedman,3 however, prefers the names a-cholinesterase for the enzyme more active towards acetylcholine, and / -cholinesterase for the one preferentially hydrolysing butyrylcholine. Enzymes of the first type play a fundamental part in acetylcholine metabolism in vivo. The function of the second type in vivo is obscure. Not everyone agrees with the designation suggested by Stedman. It must also be stressed that enzymes of one type from different species are not always identical in every respect.4 Furthermore,... 

This method for preparing 2-phenyl-1-pyrroline, and assorted 2-substituted 1-pyrrolines, is one of the best currently available, particularly because it reproducibly affords clean materials. Generally, the procedure is amenable to various aromatic esters 2 it has also been applied successfully to aliphatic esters (Table I).3 An advantage of this method is the use of readily available, inexpensive N-vinyl-pyrrolidin-2-one as a key starting material. This compound serves effectively as a 3-aminopropyl carbanion equivalent. The method illustrated in this procedure has been extended to include the synthesis of 2,3-disubstituted pyrrolines. Thus, alkylation of the enolate of the intermediate keto lactam, followed by hydrolysis, leads to various disubstituted pyrrolines in good yields (see Table II).3... 

As we shall see later, most catalytic antibodies achieve rate accelerations in the range 103 to 106. It follows that for a very slow reaction, e.g. the alkaline hydrolysis of a phosphate diester with A 0h 10-u m 1 s 1 direct observation of the reaction is going to be experimentally problematic. Given that concentrations of catalytic antibodies employed are usually in the 1-10 /am range, it has proved far more realistic to target the hydrolysis of an aliphatic ester, with /c0h 0.1 m-1 s-1 under ambient conditions. 

Fig. 9.8 presents another, more complex type of phosphate prodrugs, namely (phosphoryloxy)methyl carbonates and carbamates (9-26, X = O or NH, resp.) [84], Here, the [(phosphoryloxy)methyl]carbonyl carrier appears quite versatile and of potential interest to prepare prodrugs of alcohols, phenols, and amines. The cascade of reactions leading from prodrug to drug as shown in Fig. 9.8 involves three steps, namely ester hydrolysis, release of formaldehyde, and a final step of carbonate hydrolysis (X = O) or A-decar-boxylation (X = NH). Three model compounds, a secondary alcohol, a primary aliphatic amine, and a primary aromatic amine, were derivatized with the carrier moiety and examined for their rates of breakdown [84], The alcohol, indan-2-ol, yielded a carrier-linked derivative that proved relatively... 

Aspirin is an ester, bnt it still contains a carboxylic acid fnnction (p/Ca 3.5). In aqueous solntion, there will thus be significant ionization. However, this ionization now provides an acid catalyst for ester hydrolysis and initiates autolysis (autohydrolysis). The hydrolysis product salicylic acid (pACa 3.0) is also acidic both aspirin and salicylic acid are aromatic acids and are rather stronger acids than aliphatic compounds such as acetic acid (pACa 4.8) (see Section 4.3.5). An aqueous solution of aspirin has a half-life of about 40 days at room temperature. In other words, after about 40 days, half of the material has been hydrolysed, and the biological activity will have deteriorated similarly. 

Since the total steric effect of component substituents R1, R2 and R3 on the reaction center in the transition state of ester hydrolysis is similar, if not identical, to that of three N-substituents of aliphatic amines on a certain electron acceptor or electrophile, we attempted to separate electronic and steric effects of N-substituents of amines NR3R2R3 for various reactions by Eq. 24 where is either the rate or equilibrium constant, Scr is the sum of a values for R1, R2 and R3 and E (R ) E (R2) Si E (R3), and showed that Eq. 24 is generally applicable 22). 

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