Chiral compounds chemistry

Fluka Chemika, Chiral Compounds Chemistry, Fluka Chemie AG, Swit2erland, 1994. 

For developing osmium-catalyzed oxidation methods for preparing chiral compounds of high optical purity, Professor K. Barry Sharpless (Scripps Research Institute) shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in chemistry. 

The development of a single enantiomer as a new active substance should be described in the same manner as for any other new chemical entity. Studies should be carried out with the single enantiomer, but if development began with the race-mate then these studies may also be taken into account. Chiral conversion should be considered early on so that enantiospecific bioanalytical methods may be developed. These methods should be described in chemistry and pharmacy part of the dossier. If the opposite enantiomer is formed in vivo, then it should be evaluated in the same way as other metabolites. For endogenous human chiral compounds, enantiospecific analysis may not be necessary. The enantiomeric purity of the active ingredient used in preclinical and clinical studies should be stated. 

Over the years of evolution, Nature has developed enzymes which are able to catalyze a multitude of different transformations with amazing enhancements in rate [1]. Moreover, these enzyme proteins show a high specificity in most cases, allowing the enantioselective formation of chiral compounds. Therefore, it is not surprising that they have been used for decades as biocatalysts in the chemical synthesis in a flask. Besides their synthetic advantages, enzymes are also beneficial from an economical - and especially ecological - point of view, as they stand for renewable resources and biocompatible reaction conditions in most cases, which corresponds with the conception of Green Chemistry [2]. 

The transition metal-catalyzed hydrovinylation has been reviewed by RajanBabu who focused mainly on asymmetric reactions, affording chiral compounds.146 The vinylarenes are the most investigated substrates for the hydrovinylation reaction due to the high appeal of the final products in medicinal or polymer chemistry fields.1... 

Finally, reference must be made to the important and interesting chiral crystal structures. There are two classes of symmetry elements those, such as inversion centers and mirror planes, that can interrelate. enantiomeric chiral molecules, and those, like rotation axes, that cannot. If the space group of the crystal is one that has only symmetry elements of the latter type, then the structure is a chiral one and all the constituent molecules are homochiral the dissymmetry of the molecules may be difficult to detect but, in principle, it is present. In general, if one enantiomer of a chiral compound is crystallized, it must form a chiral structure. A racemic mixture may crystallize as a racemic compound, or it may spontaneously resolve to give separate crystals of each enantiomer. The chemical consequences of an achiral substance crystallizing in a homochiral molecular assembly are perhaps the most intriguing of the stereochemical aspects of solid-state chemistry. 

In addition to providing a novel approach to the preparation of chiral compounds, this type of chemistry may allow one to inquire into the subtle stereochemical details of some crystal-state reactions. For example, what are the approach geometry and the preferred side of attack in the addition of bromine to a chiral olefin (259) What can be learned of the geometry of the labile electronically excited species involved in (2 + 2) photocycloaddition reactions (260) ... 

This chapter covers only the chiral compounds that are cited in the literature by virtue of their optical activity. To keep the chapter to an acceptable length, a discussion of the stereochemical properties of sulfenamides showing axial chirality is omitted (17). Similarly, to limit the scope of the review, the chemistry of penicillin, cephalosporin sulfoxides and related compounds (14,18,19), steroidal sulfoxides (15,16), and other naturally occurring chiral sulfur compounds (4) is not discussed. For the same reason, only selected results are discussed and in some cases only references are given to recent papers and review articles on special topics. 

Relatively little attention has been paid to the conversion of racemic compounds into their enantiomerically pure versions in a single process, in other words a deracemization. For certain classes of chiral compounds such as secondary alcohols, this approach should provide many benefits, particularly to the pharmaceutical industry. Existing routes to high value intermediates in their racemic form may be modified to provide the equivalent homochiral product, thus reducing the extent of development chemistry required. In addition, the... 

Nowadays, this chemistry includes a wide range of applications. The organozinc compounds employed in the enantioselective addition include dialkylzincs, dialkenylzincs, dialkynylzincs, diarylzincs and the related unsymmetrical diorganozincs. Electrophiles have been expanded to aldehydes, ketones and imines. Asymmetric amplification has been observed in the enantioselective addition of organozincs. Recently, asymmetric autocatalysis, i.e. automultiplication of chiral compounds, has been created in organozinc addition to aldehydes. 

In any event, the recent growth of the area of enantioselective transformations with chemical catalysts and enzymes has greatly enhanced the overall potential of organic synthesis. Now, asymmetric synthesis of single enantiomers is becoming a common practice in laboratories (56). This volume will focus primarily on enantioselective transformations aided by substoichiometric amounts of chiral compounds. This chemistry is still young and primitive but is full of promise. See (57)... 

In many respects, chiral compounds have been regarded as special entities within the tine chemical community. As we will see, the possession of chirality does not, in many respects, make the compound significantly more expensive to obtain. Methods for the preparation of optically active compounds have been known for more than 100 years (many based on biological processes). The basic chemistry to a substrate on which an asymmetric transformation is then performed can offer more challenges in terms of chemistry and cost optimization than the exalted asymmetric step. 

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