Carbonyl group decarboxylation

These doubly stabilized anions are alkylated so well that it is common to carry out an alkylation between two carbonyl groups, only to remove one of them at a later stage. This is made possible by the fact that carboxylic acids with a 3-carbonyl group decarboxylate (lose carbon dioxide) on heating. The mechanism below shows how. After alkylation of the dicarbonyl compound the unwanted ester is first hydrolysed in base. Acidification and heating lead to... 

Decarboxylation does not occur readily for simple carboxylic acids. However, carboxylic acids containing a (3-carbonyl group decarboxylate at relatively low temperatures. Two compounds of this type are acetoacetic acid and malonic acid. 

The role of the base is apparently primarily that of a proton remover from the reactive methylene group thus if B represents the base, reaction (i) gives the carbanion, which then combines with the positive carbon of the carbonyl group (reaction ii) the product regains a proton from the piperidinium ion, and then by loss of water followed by mono-decarboxylation of the malonic acid residue gives the final acid. 

By the ketonic hydrolysis of substituted acetoacetic esters this is brought about by the action of dilute alkali in the cold, followed by acidification and boiling. The free substituted acetoacetic acid is produced, which readily undergoes decarboxylation (since it has a carboxyl and a carbonyl group on the same carbon atom) to give a ketone, for example ... 

Section 19 17 11 Dicarboxylic acids (malonic acids) and p keto acids undergo thermal decarboxylation by a mechanism m which a p carbonyl group assists the departure of carbon dioxide... 

Carboxylic acids having a second carbonyl group two atoms away lose C02 (clecarboxylatc) through an intermediate enolate ion when treated with base. Write the mechanism of this decarboxylation reaction using curved arrows to show the electron flow in each step. 

Decarboxylation is not a general reaction of carboxylic acids. Rather, it is unique to compounds that have a second carbonyl group two atoms away from the —COoH. That is, only substituted malonic acids and /3-keto acids undergo loss of CC>2 on heating. The decarboxylation reaction occurs by a cyclic mechanism and involves initial formation of an enol, thereby accounting for the need to have a second carbonyl group appropriately positioned. 

The final decarboxylation of mevalonate 5-diphosphate appears unusual because decarboxylations of acids do not typically occur except in /3-keto acids and malonic acids, in which the carboxylate group is two atoms away from an additional carbonyl group (Section 22.7). The function of this second carbonyl group is to act as an electron acceptor and stabilize the charge resulting from loss of CC>2- In fact, though, the decarboxylation of a /3-kelo acid and the decarboxylation of mevalonate 5-diphosphate are closely related. 

Step 5 of Figure 29.5 Condensation The key carbon-carbon bond-forming reaction that builds the fatty-acid chain occurs in step 5. This step is simply a Claisen condensation between acetyl synthase as the electrophilic acceptor and malonyl ACP as the nucleophilic donor. The mechanism of the condensation is thought to involve decarboxylation of malonyl ACP to give an enolate ion, followed by immediate addition of the enolate ion to the carbonyl group of acetyl... 

Step 3 of Figure 29.12 Oxidation and Decarboxylation (2K,3S)-lsocitrate, a secondary alcohol, is oxidized by NAD+ in step 3 to give the ketone oxalosuccinate, which loses C02 to givea-ketoglutarate. Catalyzed by isocitrate dehydrogenase, the decarboxylation is a typical reaction of a /3-keto acid, just like that in the acetoacetic ester synthesis (Section 22.7). The enzyme requires a divalent cation as cofactor, presumably to polarize the ketone carbonyl group. 

The decarboxylation reaction usually proceeds from the dissociated form of a carboxyl group. As a result, the primary reaction intermediate is more or less a carbanion-like species. In one case, the carbanion is stabilized by the adjacent carbonyl group to form an enolate intermediate as seen in the case of decarboxylation of malonic acid and tropic acid derivatives. In the other case, the anion is stabilized by the aid of the thiazolium ring of TPP. This is the case of transketolases. The formation of carbanion equivalents is essentially important in the synthetic chemistry no matter what methods one takes, i.e., enzymatic or ordinary chemical. They undergo C—C bond-forming reactions with carbonyl compounds as well as a number of reactions with electrophiles, such as protonation, Michael-type addition, substitution with pyrophosphate and halides and so on. In this context,... 

As for the reaction path from pyruvic acid to citraconic anhydride, it is considered that a condensation reaction first takes place by a reaction between an oxygen atom of carbonyl group and two hydrogn atoms of methyl group in another molecule, followed by oxidative decarboxylation to form citraconic acid. The produced citraconic acid is dehydrated under the reaction conditions used. The proposed reaction path is shown in Figure 7. 

The reaction of dichlorocarbene with the fused-ring cyclone (Scheme 7.15) follows an unusual pathway. After initial reaction at the C=C bond, further attack occurs at the carbonyl group. Ring-opening of the oxirane, followed by decarboxylation (see Section 7.4) leads to the final product in 52% yield [73]. 

The first designed catalyst where there was some understanding of the relationship between structure and function was oxaldie 1, a 14-residue peptide that folds in solution to form helical bundles [11] (Fig. 12). Oxaldie 1 was designed to catalyze the decarboxylation of oxaloacetate, the a-keto acid of aspartic acid, via a mechanism where a primary amine reacts with the ketone carbonyl group to form a carbinolamine that is decarboxylated to form pyruvate. The reaction is piCj dependent and proceeds faster the lower the piC of the primary amine if the reaction is carried out at a pH that is lower than the piCj, of the reactive amine. The sequence contains five lysine residues that in the folded state form... 

These decarboxylation reactions must not be viewed as unwanted processes that complicate reactions, but reactions that can be put to very good use. There were hints in the last paragraph. Two carbonyl groups in a 1,3-relationship increase the acidity of the a-protons between the two groups compared with protons adjacent to just one carbonyl... 

The nucleophile in biological Claisen reactions that effectively adds on acetyl-CoA is almost always malonyl-CoA. This is synthesized from acetyl-CoA by a reaction that utilizes a biotin-enzyme complex to incorporate carbon dioxide into the molecule (see Section 15.9). This has now flanked the a-protons with two carbonyl groups, and increases their acidity. The enzymic Claisen reaction now proceeds, but, during the reaction, the added carboxyl is lost as carbon dioxide. Having done its job, it is immediately removed. In contrast to the chemical analogy, a carboxylated intermediate is not formed. Mechanistically, one could perhaps write a concerted decarboxylation-nucleophilic attack, as shown. An alternative rationalization is that decarboxylation of the malonyl ester is used by the enzyme to effectively generate the acetyl enolate anion without the requirement for a strong base. 

This ylid can act as a nucleophile, and is also a reasonable leaving group. Addition to the carbonyl group of pyruvic acid is followed by decarboxylation, the positive nitrogen in the ring acting... 

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