Acyl transfer anhydrides

An important difference between Fnedel-Crafts alkylations and acylations is that acyl cations do not rearrange The acyl group of the acyl chloride or acid anhydride is transferred to the benzene ring unchanged The reason for this is that an acyl cation is so strongly stabilized by resonance that it is more stable than any ion that could con ceivably arise from it by a hydride or alkyl group shift... 

Acyl transfer from an acid anhydride to an alcohol is a standard method for the preparation of esters. The reaction is subject to catalysis by either acids (H2SO4) or bases (pyridine). 

Flavone formation is believed to proceed through a similar mechanism as the synthesis of chromones, albeit aromatic acid anhydrides and their corresponding salts are used. The first step is benzoylation of 12 to give the ester 14. Enolization and o-alkylation then affords the enolbenzoate 15. Enolbenzoate 15 then undergoes an acyl transfer to yield... 

Enantioenriched alcohols and amines are valuable building blocks for the synthesis of bioactive compounds. While some of them are available from nature s chiral pool , the large majority is accessible only by asymmetric synthesis or resolution of a racemic mixture. Similarly to DMAP, 64b is readily acylated by acetic anhydride to form a positively charged planar chiral acylpyridinium species [64b-Ac] (Fig. 43). The latter preferentially reacts with one enantiomer of a racemic alcohol by acyl-transfer thereby regenerating the free catalyst. For this type of reaction, the CsPhs-derivatives 64b/d have been found superior. 

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). 

Scheme 19 Selective acyl transfer in reductive hydroacylations involving mixed carboxylic anhydrides derived from pivalic acid...

Much more important than these reactions, however, are the reactions of CDI and its analogues with carboxylic acids, leading to AAacylazoles, from which (by acyl transfer) esters, amides, peptides, hydrazides, hydroxamic acids, as well as anhydrides and various C-acylation products may be obtained. The potential of these and other reactions will be shown in the following chapters. In most of these reactions it is not necessary to isolate the intermediate AAacylazoles. Instead, in the normal procedure the appropriate nucleophile reactant (an alcohol in the ester synthesis, or an amino acid in the peptide synthesis) is added to a solution of an AAacylimidazole, formed by reaction of a carboxylic acid with CDI. Thus, CDI and its analogues offer an especially convenient vehicle for activation of... 

Acyl-transfer reactions are some of the most important conversions in organic chemistry and biochemistry. Recent work has shown that adjacent cationic groups can also activate amides in acyl-transfer reactions. Friedel-Crafts acylations are known to proceed well with carboxylic acids, acid chlorides (and other halides), and acid anhydrides, but there are virtually no examples of acylations with simple amides.19 During studies related to unsaturated amides, we observed a cyclization reaction that is essentially an intramolecular acyl-transfer reaction involving an amide (eq 15). The indanone product is formed by a cyclization involving the dicationic species (40). To examine this further, the related amides 41 and 42 were studied in superacid promoted conversions (eqs 16-17). It was found that amide 42 leads to the indanone product while 41... 

FIGURE 7.34 Decomposition of the symmetrical anhydride of A-methoxycarbonyl-valine (R1 = CH3) in basic media.2 (A) The anhydride is in equilibrium with the acid anion and the 2-alkoxy-5(4//)-oxazolone. (B) The anhydride undergoes intramolecular acyl transfer to the urethane nitrogen, producing thelV.AT-fcwmethoxycarbonyldipeptide. (A) and (B) are initiated by proton abstraction. Double insertion of glycine can be explained by aminolysis of the AA -diprotected peptide that is activated by conversion to anhydride Moc-Gly-(Moc)Gly-0-Gly-Moc by reaction with the oxazolone. (C) The A,A -diacylated peptide eventually cyclizes to the IV.AT-disubstituted hydantoin as it ejects methoxy anion or (D) releases methoxycarbonyl from the peptide bond leading to formation of the -substituted dipeptide ester. 

The acyl group of the carboxylic acid, acyl chloride, or acid anhydride is transferred to the oxygen of the alcohol. This fact is most clearly evident in the esterification of chiral alcohols, where, because none of the bonds to the chirality center is broken in the process, retention of configuration is observed. 

The above types of catalysis function by stabilizing the transition state of the reaction without changing the mechanism. Catalysts may also involve a different reaction, pathway. A typical example is nucleophilic catalysis in an acyl transfer or hydrolytic reaction. The hydrolysis of acetic anhydride is greatly enhanced by pyridine because of the rapid formation of the highly reactive acetylpyridinium ion (equation 2.12). For nucleophilic catalysis to be efficient, the nucleophile... 

A new class of chiral 4-A,A-dialkylaminopyridine acyl-transfer catalysts has been developed that are capable of exploiting both van der Waals (jt) and H-bonding interactions to allow remote chiral information to control stereochemically the kinetic resolutions of secondary alcohols with moderate to excellent selectivity (S = 6-30). Catalysts derived from (.S )- , -diarylprolinol (89 Ar = Ph, 2-naphthyl) in combination with isobutyric anhydride were found to possess high activity and selectivity across a broad range of substrates 89... 

Type II catalytic asymmetric acyl transfer processes have been most extensively developed for the case of ASD of meso-anhydrides by nucleophilic ring-opening with alcohols, and so these processes will be the first type II processes considered here. 

A similar system was also capable to promote acyl transfer allowing the synthesis of a 2/,3/-aminoacyl (ester) oligonucleotide from an aminoacyl (anhydride) 5 -phosphale oligonucleotide [172],... 

N-Acylsaccharins (13) possess a certain potential as acylating agents. They will acylate amines, but will react with water or alcohols only when acid or base is present.167 The method was used to acylate a-amino-penicillanic acid.170 Micheel162-165 has based a peptide (38) synthesis on the acyl transfer from 31 [Z = carbobenzoxy, obtained through reaction with DCC or with pseudosaccharin chloride (6) or with thionyl chloride and imidazole] to amino acids. Pseudosaccharin anhydride 323, lee js thg product of a condensation between 6 and 1, mostly from hydrolysis of 6. Formation of 32 tends to occur in nonprotic solvents with base catalysis, even when practical precautions are taken to exclude moisture. Water and protic solvents seem to shield the anion 19 and prevent attack on 6. 

Reaction of complex (90) with methyllithium followed by acid and carbon monoxide affords a mixture of acylated complexes (Scheme 149). Reaction of an oxime complex with organocuprates followed by acetic anhydride, carbon monoxide, and potassium carbonate gives meta-acylaniline derivatives (Scheme 150). In both cases, the nucleophile probably initially adds to the metal followed by an acyl transfer. 

Asymmetric Alkylation. 4-Pseudoephedrine ([IS, 2S]-(+)) is a commodity chemical employed in over-the-counter medications with annual worldwide production in excess of 300 metric tons. The enantiomer, /-pseudoephedrine, is also readily available in bulk and is inexpensive. Pseudoephedrine has been shown to be highly effective as a chiral auxiliary in asymmetric alkylation reactions. Treatment of either enantiomer of pseudoephedrine with carboxylic acid chlorides and anhydrides leads to efficient and selective iV-acylation to form the corresponding tertiary amide derivatives (Table 1). Typically, the only by-product in the acylation reactions is a small amount (<5%) of the A,0-diacylated product, which is easily removed by crystallization or flash column chromatography. Because intramolecular 0- -N acyl transfer within pseudoephedrine 3-amino esters occurs rapidly, and because the A-acyl form is strongly favored under neutral or basic conditions, products arising from (mono)acylation on oxygen rather than nitrogen are not observed. 

An acyl transfer agent which can be used for the synthesis of acid anhydrides is obtained from the reaction of an acid chloride with 4-benzylpyridine (equation 24). In this way benzoic acid anhydride and cinnamic acid anhydride were obtained in 72% and 57% yields, respectively. As the intermediate, 1-acyl-4-benzylidene-l,4-dihydropyridines, can be isolated, Ais procedure should be well suited for the preparation of mixed anhydrides. Mixed aromatic and aliphatic anhydrides can be prepared with 2-ben-zoylthio-l-methylpyridinium chloride and salts of carboxylic acids. These reactions are carried out in aqueous solution. Iliey make use of the high reactivity of esters of thiocarboxylic esters towards nucleophiles. The mixed anhydrides of benzoic acid with 3-phenylpropanoic acid, phenoxyacetic acid, isobu-tyric acid, p-toluic acid and cinnamic acid were formed in 82, 79,61,91 and 66% yields, respectively. 

Mixed anhydrides from carboxylic acids (26a) have to be so devised that the desired acyl group is transferred, lliis can be achieved in two ways. The first one is to block the undesired carbonyl position by steric (e.g. 26aa equation 5) or electronic (e.g. 26ab equation 6) deactivation. The second one, as illustrated by (26ac equation 7) is to allow the reversible attack of both carbonyl groups the desired acyl transfer is accomplished by the better leaving group quality of the trifluoroacetate. Specifically, the... 

Interestingly, the a-acetoxy sulfides (106) obtained from the reaction of 3-keto sulfoxides with acetic anhydride containing sodium acetate undergo in situ oxidation-reduction and acyl transfer, giving a-acetoxy thiol esters (107) as products (Scheme 23)J Yields in this process are generally high. 

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