Aromaticity tautomeric forms

Smalley et al. reported the synthesis of the cyano-containing keto ester 98 by reaction of o-azidobenzoyl chloride 97 with cyanoacetic ester in the presence of triethylamine. This keto ester was then heated in acetonitrile for 30 min and gave the ring closed product 99 which was isolated in the fully aromatic tautomeric form 100 <1997S773>. A similar approach to tetrazolo[l,5- ]quinolines has been applied by a Korean research group in this case a reflux of the cyano-azido compound 101 for a longer period was needed in order to accomplish the cyclization to 4-acetoxymethyl-tetrazolo[l,5- ]quinoline 102 <2003JHC1103>. 

The reductive cyclization protocol was then applied to a suitably A-protected radical precursor to allow further access to the alkaloid calothrixin B. Satisfactorily, 2-indolylacyl radicals derived from A-(methoxymethyl) selenoester 57 underwent cyclization under TTMSS-AIBN conditions with an even higher efficiency than their A-methyl counterparts. The reaction nevertheless followed a different course as, after the radical addition and quinoline rearomatization, pentacyclic phenol 58, a fully aromatic tautomeric form of ketone P, was isolated in 90% yield. The same phenol 58 was isolated although in lower yields (50-70%) using either stannane-AIBN or AIBN-irradiation protocols. 

Tautomerism questions arise with hydroxyphenazines and quinoxalines which contain hydroxyl groups in the aromatic ring. Does 5-hydroxyquinoxaline (62) show any tendency to exist as the tautomer (63) or 1-hydroxyphenazine (64) to exist as (65) Analogous tautomeric forms can also be written for 6-hydroxyquinoxaline and 2-hydroxyphenazine. 

As discussed in Section 4.01.5.2, hydroxyl derivatives of azoles (e.g. 463, 465, 467) are tautomeric with either or both of (i) aromatic carbonyl forms (e.g. 464,468) (as in pyridones), and (ii) alternative non-aromatic carbonyl forms (e.g. 466, 469). In the hydroxy enolic form (e.g. 463, 465, 467) the reactivity of these compounds toward electrophilic reagents is greater than that of the parent heterocycles these are analogs of phenol. 

The 4- and 5-hydroxy-imidazoles, -oxazoles and -thiazoles (499, 501) and 4-hydroxy-pyrazoles, -isoxazoles and -isothiazoles (503) cannot tautomerize to an aromatic carbonyl form. However, tautomerism similar to that which occurs in hydroxy-furans, -thiophenes and -pyrroles is possible (499 500 503 504 501 502), as well as a zwitterionic... 

Aromatic pyrazoles and indazoles, in the broad sense defined in Sections 4.04.1.1.1 and 4.04.1.1.2, will be discussed here. Tautomerism has already been discussed (Section 4.04.1.5) and acid-base equilibria will be considered in Section 4.04.2.1.3. These two topics are closely related (Scheme 10) as a common anion (156a) or a common cation (156b) is generally involved in the mechanism of proton transfer (e.g. 78T2259). For aromatic pyrazoles with exocyclic conjugation there is also a common anion (157) for the three tautomeric forms... 

As would be anticipated, amino groups in the homocyclic ring of 1,2-benzisoxazoles behave as normal aromatic amines, forming mono- and bis-acyl derivatives, etc. (67AHC(8)277,p. 296). In th e isomeric 2,1-benzisoxazoles the 3-amino compound exists as such and not in the tautomeric 3-imino form (65CB1562). Amino groups in 3-phenyl substituents behave as normal aromatic amines (67AHC(8)277,p. 331). 

Heterocyclic enamines A -pyrroline and A -piperideine are the precursors of compounds containing the pyrrolidine or piperidine rings in the molecule. Such compounds and their N-methylated analogs are believed to originate from arginine and lysine (291) by metabolic conversion. Under cellular conditions the proper reaction with an active methylene compound proceeds via an aldehyde ammonia, which is in equilibrium with other possible tautomeric forms. It is necessary to admit the involvement of the corresponding a-ketoacid (12,292) instead of an enamine. The a-ketoacid constitutes an intermediate state in the degradation of an amino acid to an aldehyde. a-Ketoacids or suitably substituted aromatic compounds may function as components in active methylene reactions (Scheme 17). 

The Michael dimerization (activated double bond-amino group interaction) affords the intermediate 211 whose tautomeric form 212 closes the tetrahydropy-ridine cycle 213 which undergoes aromatization with elimination of water and ammonia to isomeric pyridine 214. 

Another pathway for the aromatization of the cr -adducts was found in the reactions of 3-pyrrolidino-l,2,4-triazine 4-oxide 81 with amines. Thus the treatment of 1,2,4-triazine 4-oxide 81 with ammonia leads to 5-amino-1,2,4-triazine 4-oxides 54—products of the telesubstitution reaction. In this case the cr -adduct 82 formed by the addition of ammonia at position 5 of the heterocycle undergoes a [l,5]sigmatropic shift resulting in 3,4-dihydro-1,2,4-triazine 83, which loses a molecule of pyrrolidine to yield the product 54. This mechanism was supported by the isolation of the key intermediates for the first time in such reactions—the products of the sigmatropic shift in the open-chain tautomeric form of tiiazahexa-triene 84. The structure of the latter was established by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray analysis. In spite of its open-chain character, 84 can be easily aromatized by refluxing in ethanol to form the same product 54 (99TL6099). 

Benzotriazole can exist in two tautomeric forms, l-//-benzotriazole (6.46, R = H) and 2-/f-benzotriazole. If the aromatic ring contains a substituent, the 1- and 3-nitrogen atoms of the triazole are not equivalent, and therefore a 3-//-benzotri-azole derivative can also exist. The equilibrium between the 1 -H and 2-H tautomers of benzotriazoles is strongly on the side of the 1 -H tautomer, in contrast to triazole where the 2-H tautomer is dominant. Tomas et al. (1989) compared experimental data (enthalpies of solution, vaporization, sublimation, and solvation in water, methanol, and dimethylsulfoxide) with the results of ab initio theoretical calculations at the 6-31G level. 

Other difficulties arise from the incorrect treatment of aromaticity, e.g. the tautomeric form C can be also represented as an aromatic compound. However, ALOGPS, for example, does not consider this ring as an aromatic one. Inconsistently defined aromaticity lowers the prediction performance (Fig. 15.ID). The use of SDF files, which do not explicitly define aromaticity solves this problem. All these factors are not limiting when the data are prepared with the same coding scheme and consistency. However, these issues are very important for method application and benchmarking. 

Although 7,14-dihydroxy-6H,13H-pyrazino[l,2- 4,5-,T]bisindole-6,13-dione can jn pr ncipie exist in two tautomeric forms of the dihydroxy compound 39 and the diketo form 40, only the dihydroxy is observed <2003OBC3396>. Presumably this is due to the enolizable 1,3-dicarbonyl moieties and the formation of the indole ring, therefore leading to aromaticity and a net overall stabilization. 

The numbering of the 1,3,4-thiadiazole ring is given below. The present chapter is intended to update the previous work on the aromatic 1,3,4-thiadiazole 1, the nonaromatic A2-thiadiazolines 2, A3-thiadiazolines 3, the thiadiazoli-dines 4, the tautomeric forms 5 and 6, and the mesoionic systems 7. Reference is made to earlier chapters of CHEC(1984) and CHEC-II(1996) where appropriate. 

Most coenzymes have aromatic heterocycles as major constituents. While enzymes possess purely protein structures, coenzymes incorporate non-amino acid moieties, most of them aromatic nitrogen het-erocycles. Coenzymes are essential for the redox biochemical transformations, e.g., nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD, 13) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD, 14) (Scheme 5). Both are hydrogen transporters through their tautomeric forms that allow hydrogen uptake at the termini of the quinon-oid chain. Thiamine pyrophosphate (15) is a coenzyme that assists the decarboxylation of pyruvic acid, a very important biologic reaction (Scheme 6). 

Hydroxypyridine could tautomerize in two fundamentally different ways if the proton moves to the nitrogen, cyclic conjugation and hence aromaticity is preserved, whereas movement of the proton to a ring carbon is unfavorable only the former process occurs and leads to the favored tautomeric form at equilibrium. 

The bases are monocyclic pyrimidines (see Box 11.5) or bicyclic purines (see Section 11.9.1), and all are aromatic. The two purine bases are adenine (A) and guanine (G), and the three pyrimidines are cytosine (C), thymine (T) and uracil (U). Uracil is found only in RNA, and thymine is found only in DNA. The other three bases are common to both DNA and RNA. The heterocyclic bases are capable of existing in more than one tautomeric form (see Sections 11.6.2 and 11.9.1). The forms shown here are found to predominate in nucleic acids. Thus, the oxygen substituents are in keto form, and the nitrogen substituents exist as amino groups. 

Three types of cationic species exist (5-7) all are non-aromatic. The 2-oxo derivative exists in two tautomeric forms (8 and 9) the 3-oxo derivatives have a unique structure (10). 

Although iV-hydroxypyrroles possess in principle several tautomeric forms, e.g. (76), (77) and (78), only the A-hydroxy form (76) has been observed for l-hydroxy-2-cyanopyrrole (73JOC173). In the case of 1-hydroxyindoles, where the potential loss of aromatic resonance energy will be much less, both tautomers (79) and (80) coexist in solution with the relative proportions being dependent on the solvent... 

Substituted 1,3-azoles exist in two non-charged tautomeric forms (232) and (233) together with the zwitterionic form (234). 5-Substituted 1,3-azoles also exist in forms (235) and (236) together with the zwitterionic forms (237). Some results are summarized in Table 46 for the potential hydroxy forms, the non-aromatic tautomers of types (233) and (236) clearly can be of importance. 

Hydroxy derivatives of thiophene, pyrrole and furan (240 and 243) are tautomeric with alternative non-aromatic carbonyl forms (241, 242 and 244), as discussed in Section 2.3.5.2. 

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