Hydrogen bonding amino alcohols

When isoxazolidines are hydrogenated, N—O bond cleavage usually take place to give 3-amino alcohols. Hydrogenation of monocyclic isoxazolidines with pd-C,90,150 Pd-CaC03,65,66... 

Cyanohydrin Synthesis. Another synthetically useful enzyme that catalyzes carbon—carbon bond formation is oxynitnlase (EC 4.1.2.10). This enzyme catalyzes the addition of cyanides to various aldehydes that may come either in the form of hydrogen cyanide or acetone cyanohydrin (152—158) (Fig. 7). The reaction constitutes a convenient route for the preparation of a-hydroxy acids and P-amino alcohols. Acetone cyanohydrin [75-86-5] can also be used as the cyanide carrier, and is considered to be superior since it does not involve hazardous gaseous HCN and also virtually eliminates the spontaneous nonenzymatic reaction. (R)-oxynitrilase accepts aromatic (97a,b), straight- (97c,e), and branched-chain aUphatic aldehydes, converting them to (R)-cyanohydrins in very good yields and high enantiomeric purity (Table 10). 

Other solvents can be divided into several classes. In hydrogen bond-breaking solvents (dipolar aprotics), the simple amino, hydroxy and mercapto heterocycles all dissolve. In the hydrophobic solvents, hydrogen bonding substituents greatly decrease the solubility. Ethanol and other alcohols take up a position intermediate between water and the hydro-phobic solvents (63PMH 1)177). 

These factors are sufficient to produce similar amounts of aminated isomers from 2,4-dichloropyrimidine which gives predominantly 4-alkoxylation products. Thus, a mixture of 2-amino-4-chloro- (302) and 4-amino-2-chloro-pyrimidine (303) is obtained on treatment of 2,4-dichloropyrimidine with alcoholic ammonia (25°, <18 hr), the reagent here being better at hydrogen bonding than piperidine. 

Figure 2-3. Additional polar groups participate in hydrogen bonding. Shown are hydrogen bonds formed between an alcohol and water, between two molecules of ethanol, and between the peptide carbonyl oxygen and the peptide nitrogen hydrogen of an adjacent amino acid.

Various other reducing methods are employed for the conversion of (3-nitro alcohols to amino alcohols, namely, electrochemical reduction.107 The selective electrohydrogenation of ni-troaliphatic and nitroaromatic groups in molecules containing other groups that are easy to hydrogenate (triple bond, nitrile, C-I) are carried out in methanol-water solutions at Devarda copper and Raney cobalt electrodes (Eq. 6.55).107... 

Oxazines are prone to hydrogenolysis since the relatively weak N-O bond is easily cleaved. This reaction has often been employed for the transformation of this cycle (generally obtained from nitrones) into amino alcohols in a stereocontrolled manner. For example, reaction of 57 with hydrogen and palladium on charcoal as catalyst (Equation 1) furnished the expected substituted pyrrolidine 58 in moderate yields <2003EJ01153>. 

Class 1 Liqnids capable of forming three-dimensional networks of strong hydrogen bonds, e.g., water, poly- and amino-alcohols, hydroxy-acids, etc. 

It should be appreciated that amino acids such as serine, threonine, tyrosine, and cysteine all contain side-chain alcohol or thiol groups that may participate in hydrogen bonding and stabilize a particular protein conformation. 

Figure 6.48 Proposed transition state for the proton-transfer step promoted by amino-alcohol-derived hydrogen-bonding thiourea 145.

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