Carboxylative cyclisation

Furthermore, CS applications can be improved by synthesising some of its diverse derivatives. CS has an amino group, which allows the opportimity for N-alkylation, N-carboxylation, cyclisation and crosslinking (Figure 2.4). These derivatives possess good rheological and autoassociative and surface-active characteristics [20-23]. 

Fujita reported the carboxylative cyclisation of propargylic amines with carbon dioxide in water (Scheme 16.32). The success of this reaction in aqueous media lies in the nature of the catalyst. Fujita and coworkers synthesised a family of gold(i) complexes bearing dendritic NHC ligands. Amongst them, complex XXI appeared to be the most efficient catalyst, enabling the synthesis of 2-oxazolidinones at room temperature in water. 

Treatment of N-benzoyl-L-alanine with oxalyl chloride, followed by methanolic triethylamine, yields methyl 4-methyl-2-phenyloxazole-5-carboxylate 32 <95CC2335>. a-Keto imidoyl chlorides, obtained from acyl chlorides and ethyl isocyanoacetate, cyclise to 5-ethoxyoxazoles by the action of triethylamine (e.g.. Scheme 8) <96SC1149>. The azetidinone 33 is converted into the oxazole 34 when heated with sodium azide and titanium chloride in acetonitrile <95JHC1409>. Another unusual reaction is the cyclisation of compound 35 to the oxazole 36 on sequential treatment with trifluoroacetic anhydride and methanol <95JFC(75)221>. 

Naturally we shall need to esterify all the carboxylic acid groupings and we then have an unambiguous condensation between enolisable ester (53) and unenolis-able but more electrophilic (a-diCO) diethyl oxalate (54). Hydrolysis of the esters in (55) and cyclisation occur under the same conditions. 

Another competing cyclisation during peptide synthesis is the formation of aspartimides from aspartic acid residues [15]. This problem is common with the aspartic acid-glycine sequence in the peptide backbone and can take place under both acidic and basic conditions (Fig. 9). In the acid-catalysed aspartimide formation, subsequent hydrolysis of the imide-containing peptide leads to a mixture of the desired peptide and a (3-peptide. The side-chain carboxyl group of this (3-peptide will become a part of the new peptide backbone. In the base-catalysed aspartimide formation, the presence of piperidine used during Fmoc group deprotection results in the formation of peptide piperidines. 

An alternative route to anthraquinone, which involves Friedel-Crafts acylation, is illustrated in Scheme 4.3. This route uses benzene and phthalic anhydride as starting materials. In the presence of aluminium(m) chloride, a Lewis acid catalyst, these compounds react to form 2-benzoyl-benzene-1-carboxylic acid, 74. The intermediate 74 is then heated with concentrated sulfuric acid under which conditions cyclisation to anthraquinone 52 takes place. Both stages of this reaction sequence involve Friedel-Crafts acylation reactions. In the first stage the reaction is inter-molecular, while the second step in which cyclisation takes place, involves an intramolecular reaction. In contrast to the oxidation route, the Friedel-Crafts route offers considerable versatility. A range of substituted... 

Five approaches to the synthesis of 5-amino-4-unsubstituted imidazoles (96) have been described and are summarized in Scheme 9. These are (a) reduction of 5-nitroimidazoles (97), (b) hydrolysis of carbamates and amides (98), (c) decarboxylation of imidazole carboxylic acids (99), (,d) ring transformations of 5-aminothiazoles (100), and (e) cyclisation of nitrile derivatives (101). 

Condensation of aromatic or aliphatic esters with resin-supported acetyl carboxylic acids 28 followed by cyclisation with hydroxylamine, activation of the linker, and cleavage using amines, provided highly substituted isoxazoles 30 and 31. This general method gave products in excellent yields and purities in which the regioisomers ratio can be easily controlled . 

Solid-phase combinatorial synthesis of AT-acyl-L-HSL has also been reported. The procedure entails the DIC/HOBt catalysed acylation of methionine functionalised resin with a carboxylic acid followed by BrCN-mediated cyclisation process to produce HSL libraries with retention of stereochemistry (Scheme 5) [55]. 

Aspartame is relatively unstable in solution, undergoing cyclisation by intramolecular self-aminolysis at pH values in excess of 2.0 [91]. This follows nucleophilic attack of the free base N-terminal amino group on the phenylalanine carboxyl group resulting in the formation of 3-methylenecarboxyl-6-benzyl-2, 5-diketopiperazine (DKP). The DKP further hydrolyses to L-aspartyl-L-phenyl-alanine and to L-phenylalanine-L-aspartate [92]. Grant and co-workers [93] have extensively investigated the solid-state stability of aspartame. At elevated temperatures, dehydration followed by loss of methanol and the resultant cyclisation to DKP were observed. The solid-state reaction mechanism was described as Prout-Tompkins kinetics (via nucleation control mechanism). 

Alkyl oxazoline-5-carboxylates 71, precursors of P-amino-a-hydroxycarboxylic acids, have been produced by iodocyclisation of alkyl 3-benzamidocatboxylates 70. The oxazolines can be resolved enzymatically <99SL1727>. The amides 72 are cyclised to N-aryloxazolium salts 73 by fluoroboric acid <99EJ0297>. 

Chromans with defined stereochemistry are accessible by manipulation of dihydrochromeno[3,2-b]azete-2,8-diones 26 which result from the cyclisation of azetidine-2-carboxylic chlorides 25 <99T5567> and also from chroman-4-ones via an initial enantioselective reduction by BHj in the presence of Coreyls oxazaborolidine <99T7555>. 

A summary of the in situ use of the azobenzene probases is given in Table 2. Apart from the generation of ylid, referred to above, the main applications have been for N- and C-alkylation of weak nitrogen and carbon acids, for the promotion of condensation and substitution reactions involving carbanions such as the cyano-methyl anion, for an interesting carboxylation reaction (entries 4 and 17), and for base-promoted cyclisations (entries 5 and 6). 

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