Amino acids phase-transfer catalysis

Enantioselective Synthesis of Optically Pure Amino Acids Phase-Transfer Catalysis... 

M. J. O Donnell, Asymmetric PTC Reactions. Part 1 Amino Acids , Phases - The Sachem Phase Transfer Catalysis Review 1998, Issue 4, pp. 5-8. 

Alkylation of Schiff bases, derived from amino acid and non-optically active aromatic aldehydes by phase-transfer catalysis in the presence of cinchona alkaloid derived quaternary ammonium salts, gave ce values of up to 50% l42. 

Enantioselective Michael addition of glycine derivatives by means of chiral phase-transfer catalysis has been developed to synthesize various functionalized a-alkyl-a-amino acids. Corey utilized 4d as catalyst for asymmetric Michael addition of glycinate Schiff base 1 to a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl substrates with high enantioselectivity (Scheme 2.15) [35,36]. With methyl acrylate as an acceptor, the a-tert-butyl-y-methyl ester of (S)-glutamic acid can be produced, a functionalized glutamic acid... 

In particular, it is not only the cinchona alkaloids that are suitable chiral sources for asymmetric organocatalysis [6], but also the corresponding ammonium salts. Indeed, the latter are particularly useful for chiral PTCs because (1) both pseudo enantiomers of the starting amines are inexpensive and available commercially (2) various quaternary ammonium salts can be easily prepared by the use of alkyl halides in a single step and (3) the olefin and hydroxyl functions are beneficial for further modification of the catalyst. In this chapter, the details of recent progress on asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis are described, with special focus on cinchona-derived ammonium salts, except for asymmetric alkylation in a-amino acid synthesis. 

Non-proteinogenic, chiral a.a-dialkyl-a-amino acids possessing stereochemically stable quaternary carbon centers have been significant synthetic targets, not only because they are often effective enzyme inhibitors but also because they are indispensable for the elucidation of enzymatic mechanisms. Accordingly, numerous studies have been conducted to develop truly efficient methods for their preparation [26], and in this respect phase-transfer catalysis has made unique contributions. 

Since the aldimine Schiff base 21 can be readily prepared from glycine, direct stereoselective introduction of two different side chains to 21 by appropriate chiral phase-transfer catalysis would provide an attractive, yet powerful, strategy for the asymmetric synthesis of structurally diverse a,a-dialkyl-a-amino acids. This possibility of a one-pot asymmetric double alkylation has been realized by using N-spiro chiral quaternary ammonium bromide le (Scheme 5.21). 

After having optimized the practical asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis using TaDiAS with broad substrate generality, the synthetic applications of the procedure to create complex natural products was examined, based on the easy accessibility to a variety of optically active natural and unnatural a-amino acids. 

In 1992, O Donnell succeeded in obtaining optically active a-methyl-a-amino acid derivatives 49 in a catalytic manner through the phase-transfer alkylation of p-chlorobenzaldehyde imine of alanine tert-butyl ester 48 with cinchonine-derived la as catalyst (see Scheme 4.16) [46]. Although the enantioselectivities are moderate, this study is the first example of preparing optically active a,a-dialkyl-a-amino acids by chiral phase-transfer catalysis. 

Enantioselective Michael addition of glycine derivatives by means of chiral phase-transfer catalysis has been developed to synthesize various functionalized a-alkyl-amino acids. Corey and colleagues utilized 30d as a catalyst for the asymmetric... 

The tosyl compound reacts with aldehydes in the presence of potassium carbonate to yield 5-alkyl- or 5-aryl-oxazoles, the intermediate dihydrooxazoles (which can be isolated) eliminating toluene-p-sulfinic acid (Scheme 30). Use of acyl chlorides in place of aldehydes leads to 4-tosyloxazoles (288). Furthermore, alkylation of tosylmethyl isocyanide with an alkyl halide RfX, followed by treatment with an aldehyde R2CHO, yields a 4,5-disubstituted oxazole (289). A related reaction is that of A-tosylmethyl-iV -tritylcarbodiimide with aromatic aldehydes under phase-transfer catalysis to yield 2-tritylaminooxazoles which are readily converted into 2-amino-5-aryloxazoles (equation 117) (81JOC2069). 

Maruoka K, Ooi T (2003) Enantioselective amino acid synthesis by chiral phase-transfer catalysis. Chem Rev 103 3013-3028... 

O Donnell MJ, Bennett WD, Wu S (1989) The stereoselective synthesis of a-amino acids by phase-transfer catalysis. J Am Chem Soc 111 2353... 

Catalytic Michael additions of a-nitroesters 38 catalyzed by a BINOL (2,2 -dihydroxy-l,r-bi-naphthyl) complex were found to yield the addition products 39 as precursors for a-alkylated amino acids in good yields and with respectable enantioselectivities (8-80%) as shown in Scheme 9 [45]. Asymmetric PTC (phase transfer catalysis) mediated by TADDOL (40) as a chiral catalyst has been used to synthesize enantiomeri-cally enriched a-alkylated amino acids 41 (up to 82 % ee) [46], A similar strategy has been used to access a-amino acids in a stereoselective fashion [47], Using azlactones 42 as nucleophiles in the palladium catalyzed stereoselective allyla-tion addition, compounds 43 were obtained in high yields and almost enantiomerically pure (Scheme 9) [48]. The azlactones 43 can then be converted into the a-alkylated amino acids as shown in Scheme 4. 

Majumder K, Bhattacharya S (1999) Amino acid complexes of ruthenium synthesis, characterization and cychc voltammetric studies. Polyhedron 18 3669-3673 Makosza M (2000) Phase transfer catalysis a greener methodology for organic synthesis. Pure Appl Chem 72 1439-1445 Mansy SS, Cowan JA (2004) Iron-sulfur-cluster biosynthesis toward an understanding of cellular machinery and molecular mechanism. Acc Chem Res 37 719-725 Marker B (1994a) The biological system of the elements (BSE) for terrestrial plants (glycophytes). Sci Total Environ 155 221-228... 

W-Alkylidene derivatives of glycine esters are the preferred starting compounds for the synthesis of unnatural amino acids via the deprotonation/alkylation procedure. Enolate formation is achieved with a strong base (LDA, BuLi, or phosphazene bases such as 2- tert-butylimino)-2-(ethylamino)-l,3-dimethyl-l,3,2-diazaphosphinane) or by phase-transfer catalysis (tetraalkylammonium salts with NaOH or the latter method allows... 

Asymmetric alkylation of A-pro tec ted glycine ester 26 under phase-transfer catalysis conditions is the well-known method for the syntheses of a-amino acids [19]. Scheme... 

Reviews on phase-transfer catalysis for the syntheses of a-amino acids, (a) Ooi, T. and Maruoka, K. (2004) Asymmetric organocatalysis of structurally well-defined chiral quaternary ammonium fluorides. Acc. Chem. Res., 37, 526-533 (b) Maruoka, K. and Ooi, T. (2003) Enantioselective amino acid synthesis by chiral phase-transfer catalysis. Chem. Rev., 103, 3013-3028 (c) Ooi, T. and Maruoka, K. (2003) Enantioselective synthesis of a-amino acids by chiral phase-transfer catalysis. Yuki Gosei Kagaku Kyokaishi (J. Synth. Org. Chem.) 61, 1195-1206. 

The asymmetric alkylation of glycine derivatives is one of the most simple methods by which to obtain optically active a-amino acids [31]. The enantioselective alkylation of glycine Schiff base 52 under phase-transfer catalysis (PTC) conditions and catalyzed by a quaternary cinchona alkaloid, as pioneered by O Donnell [32], allowed impressive degrees of enantioselection to be achieved using only a very simple procedure. Some examples of polymer-supported cinchona alkaloids are shown in Scheme 3.14. Polymer-supported chiral quaternary ammonium salts 48 have been easily prepared from crosslinked chloromethylated polystyrene (Merrifield resin) with an excess of cinchona alkaloid in refluxing toluene [33]. The use of these polymer-supported quaternary ammonium salts allowed high enantioselectivities (up to 90% ee) to be obtained. 

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