Enantiomerically Pure Amino Acids

The total asymmetric syntheses of natural (lS,2S)-norcoronamic 72a and of (lS,2S)-coronamic acid 73 have been obtained from the diastereoselective cyclization of chiral non-racemic 2-(Ar-benzylideneamino)-4-chlorobutyronitriles [98] but one of the shortest syntheses of these attractive amino acids was based on the diastereoselective palladium(0)-catalyzed alkylation and S cyclization of l,4-dichlorobut-2-ene by the anion of 2-aminoacetonitrile derivatives [99]. On the other hand, diastereoselective palladium(0)-catalyzed azidation of chiral non-racemic 1-alkenylcyclopropyl esters provide non-natural (lk,2S)-norcoro-namic acid, enantiomerically pure [100]. 

Effects of L- -amino acid ligands - Stepping on the tail of enantioselectivity The naturally occurring -amino acids form a class of readily available strongly coordinating ligands, which exhibit broad stmctural variation. Moreover, their availability in enantiomerically pure form offers opportunities for enantioselective catalysis. Some derivatives of these compounds have been... 

Two methods are used in practice to obtain enantiomerically pure amino acids. One way is to resolve the racemic mixture into its pure enantiomers (Section 9.8). A more direct approach, however, is to use an enantioselective synthesis to prepare only the desired 5 enantiomer directly. As discussed in the Chapter 19 Focus Oil, the idea behind enantioselective synthesis is to find a chiral reaction catalyst that will temporarily hold a substrate molecule in an unsymmetrical environment. While in that chiral environment, the substrate may be more... 

When the latter adduct (R = CFI3), purified by chromatography, is treated with sodium azide (inversion of configuration) and subsequently subjected to alkaline hydrolysis and hydrogenation, the enantiomerically pure 2-amino-3-hydroxycarboxylic acid results102 ... 

Enantiomerically pure of-dibenzylamino-/V-tosylimines 2 arc accessible from amino acids. Since they are not suitable for storage it is advantageous to prepare them in situ from the corresponding aldehydes 1 and A-sulfmyl-4-toluenesulfonamide immediately before use. Addition of Grignard reagents affords the protected 1,2-diamines 3 in good yields (57-95%) and diastereoselectivities (d.r. 85 15 >95 5)8. Deprotection is achieved without racenuzation by reductive methods, see 4-6. 

Another example of reagent-induced asymmetric synthesis is the enantioselective preparation of phosphoramides 6 by addition of dialkylzine reagents to A-diphenylphosphinoylimincs 4 in the presence of the enantiomerically pure 1,2-amino alcohols 5a or 5 b (diethylzinc does not add to A-silyl- or A-phenylimines)12. Phosphoramides 6 (crystalline solids) are obtained in moderate to good yield and good enantioselectivity. The latter can be enhanced by recrystallization. Acidic hydrolysis with dilute 3 M hydrochloric acid/tetrahydrofuran provides the corresponding amines 7 without any racemization. 

In y-alkoxyfuranones the acetal functionality is ideally suited for the introduction of a chiral auxiliary simultaneously high 71-face selectivity may be obtained due to the relatively rigid structure that is present. With ( + )- or (—(-menthol as auxiliaries it is possible to obtain both (5S)- or (5/ )-y-menthyloxy-2(5//)-furanones in an enantiomerically pure form293. When the auxiliary acts as a bulky substituent, as in the case with the 1-menthyloxy group, the addition of enolates occurs trans to the y-alkoxy substituent. The chiral auxiliary is readily removed by hydrolysis and various optically active lactones, protected amino acids and hydroxy acids are accessible in this way294-29s-400. 

The use of enantiomerically pure (R)-5-menthyloxy-2(5.//)-furanone results in lactone enolates, after the initial Michael addition, which can be quenched diastereoselectively trans with respect to the /J-substituent. With aldehydes as electrophiles adducts with four new stereogenic centers arc formed with full stereocontrol and the products are enantiomerically pure. Various optically active lactones, and after hydrolysis, amino acids and hydroxy acids can be synthesized in this way317. 

Asano et al. have developed an approach for the synthesis of D-amino acids through DKR using a two-enzyme system [55]. They had previously reported the discovery of new D-stereospecific hydrolases that can be applied to KR of racemic amino acid amides to yield D-amino acids. Combination of a D-stereospedfic hydrolase with an amino acid amide racemase allows performing DKR of i-amino acid amides yielding enantiomerically pure D-amino acids in excellent yields (Figure 4.29). 

A nomenclature was proposed by Seebach for the description of / -amino acids according to their substitution pattern, and for naming the resulting / -peptides [66, 67]. Enantiomerically pure / -amino acid derivatives with substituents in the 2-or 3-position are thus defined as - and / -amino acids, respectively (abbreviated to H-/ -HXaa-OH and H-/ -HXaa-OH). The corresponding /S-peptides built from these monomers will be named ff - and / -peptides. Similarly, /S -peptides consist of / -amino acid residues with substituents in both the 2- and 3-positions. Finally, peptides built from geminally disubsituted amino acids are referred to as and / -peptides (Fig. 2.6). 

Although these Boc derivatives underwent methylation with poor selectivity (compared to 3-amino-N-benzoyl butanoates [106] and Z-protected methyl 4-phen-yl-3-aminobutanoate [107]), epimers were succesfully separated by preparative HPLC or by flash chromatography. However, saponification of the methyl ester caused partial epimerization of the a-stereocenter and a two-step (epimerization free) procedure involving titanate-mediated transesterification to the corresponding benzyl esters and hydrogenation was used instead to recover the required Boc-y9 -amino acids in enantiomerically pure form [104, 105]. N-Boc-protected amino acids 19 and 20 for incorporation into water-soluble /9-peptides were pre-... 

Recent efforts in the development of efficient routes to highly substituted yS-ami-no acids based on asymmetric Mannich reactions with enantiopure sulfmyl imine are worthy of mention. Following the pioneering work of Davis on p-tolu-enesulfmyl imines [116], Ellman and coworkers have recently developed a new and efficient approach to enantiomerically pure N-tert-butanesulfmyl imines and have reported their use as versatile intermediates for the asymmetric synthesis of amines [91]. Addition of titanium enolates to tert-butane sulfmyl aldimines and ketimines 31 proceeds in high yields and diastereoselectivities, thus providing general access to yS -amino acids 32 (Scheme 2.5)... 

Alternative routes to -amino acids have also been explored and involve, stereoselective alkylation of chiral derivatives of y9-alanine [136-140], Curtius rearrangement of enantiomerically pure and regioselectively protected substituted-succinic acids [134, 141, 142] (the approach is also suitable for the synthesis of y9 -amino acids [143]), or the formation of chiral isoxazolidinone intermediates [144]. 

A general approach to the synthesis of enantiomerically pure y, as weU as y " -amino acids has been developped by Brenner and Seebach [206, 207, 230]. It involves the Michael addition of Ti-enolates generated from acyl-oxazohdin-2-ones to nitroolefms in the presence of a Lewis acid (TiCU, Et2AlCl) as the key step... 

Enamide hydrogenations have become a routine test reaction for evaluation of the effectiveness of new chiral Hgands [5,11,20,56,59,104]. In addition to being a test reaction, it stands as one of the most powerful and economic methods for the production of enantiomerically pure a-amino acid derivatives. Our group... 

These catalysts were first tested as resin-bound derivatives via HTS, first with metals and then without. Three libraries of chiral molecules, based on three different enantiomerically pure diamines, bulky salicylidene moities and optically active ii-amino acids were used for structure optimisation (Scheme 37 TBSCN = fBuMe2SiCN) [152]. 

Clerici and Porta reported that phenyl, acetyl and methyl radicals add to the Ca atom of the iminium ion, PhN+Me=CHMe, formed in situ by the titanium-catalyzed condensation of /V-methylanilinc with acetaldehyde to give PhNMeCHMePh, PhNMeCHMeAc, and PhNMeCHMe2 in 80% overall yield.83 Recently, Miyabe and co-workers studied the addition of various alkyl radicals to imine derivatives. Alkyl radicals generated from alkyl iodide and triethylborane were added to imine derivatives such as oxime ethers, hydrazones, and nitrones in an aqueous medium.84 The reaction also proceeds on solid support.85 A-sulfonylimines are also effective under such reaction conditions.86 Indium is also effective as the mediator (Eq. 11.49).87 A tandem radical addition-cyclization reaction of oxime ether and hydrazone was also developed (Eq. 11.50).88 Li and co-workers reported the synthesis of a-amino acid derivatives and amines via the addition of simple alkyl halides to imines and enamides mediated by zinc in water (Eq. 11.51).89 The zinc-mediated radical reaction of the hydrazone bearing a chiral camphorsultam provided the corresponding alkylated products with good diastereoselectivities that can be converted into enantiomerically pure a-amino acids (Eq. 11.52).90... 

A new chiral auxiliary based on a camphor-derived 8-lactol has been developed for the stereoselective alkylation of glycine enolate in order to give enantiomerically pure a-amino acid derivatives. As a key step for the synthesis of this useful auxiliary has served the rc-selective hydroformylation of a homoallylic alcohol employing the rhodium(I)/XANTPHOS catalyst (Scheme 11) [56]. 

Bommarius, A.S., Drauz, K., Klenk, H. and Wandrey, C. (1992) Operational stability of enzymes - acylase catalyzed resolution of /V-acetyl amino acids to enantiomerically pure L-amino acids. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 672, 126-136. 

Many compounds are less soluble as racemates than as their pure enantiomers. It thus appears probable that evaporation of an amino acid solution with a low ee should cause selective precipitation of the racemate crystals, which in turn should lead to an increase of the ee. Extremely simple manipulations, carried out in the chemistry department of Columbia University, led to a drastic increase in enantiomeric excess of phenylalanine 500 mg phenylalanine (with a 1 % ee of the L-component) was dissolved in water, and the resulting solution slowly evaporated until about 400 mg had crystallised out. The remaining solution contained a few mg of phenylalanine with 40% ee of the L-component (i.e., a 70 30 ratio of l to d). If 500 mg of such a solution (40% ee in water) is allowed to evaporate and is separated from the racemate, the result is about 100 mg, with 90% ee of the L-enantiomer (Breslow and Levine, 2006). 

The condensation of enantiomerically pure amino alcohols (derived from amino acids) with aldehydes to furnish 1,3-oxazolidines was studied by Kuhnert and Danks in 2001 (Scheme 6.212) [382], Under solvent-free conditions, microwave irradiation of equimolar mixtures of the amino alcohol and the aldehyde for less than 3 min provided high isolated yields of 1,3-oxazolidines with excellent diastereoselectivity. In the case of (-)-ephedrine, prolonged microwave irradiation (3 min) produced quantitative conversions and high diastereoselectivities. For shorter irradiation times (80 s) mixtures of the two diastereomers were obtained with moderate conversions. 

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