Carbohydrates, electrophilic

The aromatic nature of lignin contrasts with the aliphatic stmcture of the carbohydrates and permits the selective use of electrophilic substitution reactions, eg, chlorination, sulfonation, or nitration. A portion of the phenoUc hydroxyl units, which are estimated to comprise 30 wt % of softwood lignin, are unsubstituted. In alkaline systems the ionized hydroxyl group is highly susceptible to oxidative reactions. 

In carbohydrates in which benzyl groups are used extensively for protection, the stability of the benzyl groups toward electrophilic reagents is increased by the presence of electron-withdrawing groups in the ring." ... 

A useful and simple method for the one-pot preparation of highly functionalized, enanhomerically pure cyclopentanes from readily accessible carbohydrate precursors has been designed by Chiara and coworkers [73]. The procedure depends on a samarium(II) iodide-promoted reductive dealkoxyhalogenahon of 6-desoxy-6-iodo-hexopyranosides such as 7-160 to produce a 6,e-unsaturated aldehyde which, after reductive cyclization, is trapped by an added electrophile to furnish the final product. In the presence of acetic anhydride, the four products 7-161 to 7-164 were obtained from 7-160. 

The first group of approaches to glycosyl phosphates, wherein the carbohydrate acts as electrophilic component, entails common glycosylation methods and... 

The 1,3,2-dioxastannolanes are important in organic synthesis because they can readily be derived from dialkyltin oxide and 1,2-diols, as in carbohydrates the reaction can be carried out in toluene in a few minutes under microwave irradiation.387 The dioxastannolanes can then be subjected to regioselective reaction with an electrophile such as an acyl chloride (Equation (140)) or sulfonyl chloride, or an isocyanate. The acylation or sulfonation can be carried out with catalytic amounts of the dialkyltin oxide, including the recoverable (C6F13CH2CH2)2Sn0.388... 

This chapter, therefore, ends the monograph with a potpourri of reactions all of which occur without a change in oxidation state. In many cases, the reaction is one of nucleophilic attack at an electrophilic C-atom. The result is often hydrolytic bond cleavage (e.g., in carbohydrate conjugates, disubstitut-ed methylene and methine groups, imines, oximes, isocyanates, and nitriles, and various ring systems) or a nucleophilic substitution (e.g., hydrolytic de-halogenation of halocarbons and chloroplatin derivatives, and cyclization reactions). The formation of multiple bonds by dehydration is a special case to be discussed separately. 

Monomeric carbohydrates in their cyclic form (furanoses and pyranoses) are hemiacetals, which, to become acetals, form 0-glycosyl conjugates. The C-atom C(l) that bears two O-atoms is the reactive, electrophilic center targeted by glycosidases. Nonenzymatic hydrolysis is also possible, although, as a rule, under physiological conditions of pH and temperature, the reaction is of limited significance. 

Carbohydrate anisyl tellurides are easily prepared by treatment of the corresponding mesylates or tosylates with the anisyl teUurolate anion. By irradiation of these tellurocarbohy-drates in the presence of M-acetoxythiopyridone and the electrophilic olefin, the tandem addnct is formed. The oxidative elimination of the thiopyridine moiety leads to the trans-olefms. ... 

Both the aldol and reverse aldol reactions are encountered in carbohydrate metabolic pathways in biochemistry (see Chapter 15). In fact, one reversible transformation can be utilized in either carbohydrate biosynthesis or carbohydrate degradation, according to a cell s particular requirement. o-Fructose 1,6-diphosphate is produced during carbohydrate biosynthesis by an aldol reaction between dihydroxyacetone phosphate, which acts as the enolate anion nucleophile, and o-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, which acts as the carbonyl electrophile these two starting materials are also interconvertible through keto-enol tautomerism, as seen earlier (see Section 10.1). The biosynthetic reaction may be simplihed mechanistically as a standard mixed aldol reaction, where the nature of the substrates and their mode of coupling are dictated by the enzyme. The enzyme is actually called aldolase. 

In Box 10.4 we saw that an aldol-like reaction could be used to rationalize the biochemical conversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (nucleophile) and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (electrophile) into fructose 1,6-diphosphate by the enzyme aldolase during carbohydrate biosynthesis. The reverse reaction, used in the glycolytic pathway for carbohydrate metabolism, was formulated as a reverse aldol reaction. 

Hydroxylation may also take place at nitrogen atoms, resulting in hydroxyl-amines (e.g., acetaminophen). Benzene, polycyclic aromatic compounds (e.g., benzopyrene), and unsaturated cyclic carbohydrates can be converted by mono-oxygenases to epoxides, highly reactive electrophiles that are hepato-toxic and possibly carcinogenic. 

A useful application of the chemistry shown in Scheme 83 is the synthesis of branched-chain functionalized carbohydrates. For this purpose two epoxides 261 and 262 derived from D-glucose and 263 derived from D-fructose were prepared following reported methodologies, and were submitted to a DTBB-catalyzed lithiation as described above in Scheme 83. The expected intermediates 264-266 and final products 267-269 were prepared in a regio- and stereoselective manner in 15- 95% yield" Also here, the use of a prochiral electrophile gave equimolecular amounts of both diastereomers. 

---