Benzyl ester, preparation

Benzyl esters. Preparation of benzyl esters by Fischer esterification proceeds with difficulty. An alternative method involves decomposition of benzyldimethylanilinium salts of carboxylic acids in a refluxing inert solvent. 

Carboxyl groups of ammo acids and peptides are normally protected as esters Methyl and ethyl esters are prepared by Fischer esterification Deprotection of methyl and ethyl esters is accomplished by hydrolysis m base Benzyl esters are a popular choice because they can also be removed by hydrogenolysis Thus a synthetic peptide protected at both... 

Aiyl esters, prepared from the phenol and an acid chloride or anhydride in the presence of base, are readily cleaved by saponification. In general they are more readily cleaved than the related esters of alcohols, thus allowing selective removal of phenolic esters. 9-Fluorenecarboxylates and 9-xanthenecarboxylates are also cleaved by photolysis. To permit selective removal, a number of carbonate esters have been investigated aryl benzyl carbonates can be cleaved by hydrogenolysis aryl 2,2,2-trichloroethyl carbonates, by Zn/THF-H20. 

The carboxamidomethyl ester was prepared for use in peptide synthesis. It is formed from the cesium salt of an A-protected amino acid and a-chloroacetamide (60-85% yield). It is cleaved with 0.5 M NaOH or NaHCOa in DMF/H2O. It is stable to the conditions required to remove BOC, Cbz, Fmoc, and r-butyl esters. It cannot be selectively cleaved in the presence of a benzyl ester of aspartic acid. ... 

Benzyl esters are readily prepared by many of the classical methods (see introduction to this chapter), as well as by many newer methods, since benzyl alcohol is unhindered and relatively stable to acid. 

Dimethoxybenzyl esters prepared from the acid chloride and the benzyl alcohol are readily cleaved oxidatively by DDQ (CH2CI2, H2O, rt, 18 h, 90-95% yield). A 4-methoxybenzyl ester was found not to be cleaved by DDQ. The authors have also explored the oxidative cleavage (ceric ammonium nitrate, CH3CN, H2O, 0°, 4 h, 65-97% yield) of a variety of 4-hydroxy- and 4-amino-substituted phenolic esters. ... 

Ethyl Acetoacetate. -The e. planation of the manner in which this substance is produced has been given in the account of the preparation. The result was anived at, not by the iscila-tion of the intermediate compound formed by the union of ethyl acetate with sodium ethylate, but by analogy with the behaviour of benzoic methyl ester with sodium benzylate, which gave the same additive product as that obtained by combining benzoic benzyl ester with sodium methylate, showing that such combinations could occur,... 

Catalytic hydrogenolysis of an O-benzyl protective group is a mild, selective method introduced by Bergmann and Zervas to cleave a benzyl carbamate (>NC0-0CH2C6H5 —> >NH) prepared to protect an amino group during peptide syntheses. The method has also been used to cleave alkyl benzyl ethers, stable compounds prepared to protect alkyl alcohols benzyl esters are cleaved by catalytic hydrogenolysis under neutral conditions. 

B0C)20, t-BuOH or THF, DMAP, 99% yield. This methodology is effective for the preparation of allyl, methyl, ethyl, and benzyl esters as well. ... 

In subsequent studies,22 Sheehan et al. demonstrated that the action of diisopropylcarbodiimide on penicilloate 24, prepared by protection of the free primary amino group in 23 with trityl chloride (see Scheme 6b), results in the formation of the desired -lactam 25 in a very respectable yield of 67 %. In this most successful transformation, the competing azlactonization reaction is prevented by the use of a trityl group (Ph3C) to protect the C-6 amino function. Hydrogenolysis of the benzyl ester function in 25, followed by removal of the trityl protecting group with dilute aqueous HC1, furnishes 6-aminopenicillanic acid (26), a versatile intermediate for the synthesis of natural and unnatural penicillins. 

Oxidation of phenyl hexyl sulphide with sodium metaperiodate gave also only a trace amount of the corresponding sulphoxide72. On the other hand, Hall and coworkers73 prepared benzylpenicillin and phenoxymethyl penicillin sulphoxides from the corresponding benzyl esters by oxidation with sodium metaperiodate in dioxane solution with a phosphate buffer. A general procedure for the synthesis of penicillin sulphoxides was reported later by Essery and coworkers74 which consists in the direct oxidation of penicillins or their salts with sodium metaperiodate in aqueous solution at pH 6.5-7.0. 1-Butadienyl phenyl sulphoxide 4475 and a-phosphoryl sulphoxides 4576 were also prepared by the same procedure. 

Reagents that provide UV adsorptive derivatives of carboxylic acids are fairly numerous. The preparation of the simple benzyl esters by reacting the carboxylic ion with alkyl halides or diazo compounds has been unsuccessful due to their having unacceptable toxicity. The... 

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-... 

N -Fmoc serine benzyl ester 2, which could be prepared as shown or purchased commercially, was smoothly converted to the crystalHne O-methylthiomethyl (MTM) ether 3 in high yield via a Pummerer-Hke reaction using benzoyl peroxide and dimethyl sulfide in acetonitrile [39]. This common intermediate was used to synthesize both 5 and 8 [40]. Both Ogilvie [41] and Tsantrizos [42] had reported that I2 was an effective activator with similar MTM ether substrates. The H promoted nucleosidation reaction between O-MTM ether 3 and bis-silylated thymine 4 produced the nucleoamino acid 5 in 60% isolated yield (100% based on recovered 3). Hydrogenolytic deprotection of the benzyl ester with H2, Pd/C in MeOH gave the thymine-containing nucleoamino acid 6 in quantitative yield. 

A similar series of reactions was performed by Paulsen and Hdlck141 for the preparation of the T-antigenic, unprotected, amino acid-disaccha-rides 200 and 201, starting from the 4,6-0-benzylidene-N-(benzyloxy-carbonyl) benzyl esters 198 and 199, respectively, by condensation with 110 in the presence of mercury dicyanide-mercury dichloride and molecular sieves 4A, and deprotection of the product. Sinay and co-workers148 also reported the synthesis of hexa-O-acetyl derivatives of 200 and 201 by application of the sequence of azido-nitration-bromination. 

During the preparation of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors, the benzyl ester protecting group was removed by catalytic hydrogenolysis (Scheme 4.42). 

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