Chiral compounds, enantiomers

It is possible to use chromatography to separate chiral compounds (enantiomers see Section 11.6). This technique uses a stationary phase... 

Except for reactions with plane-polarized light and with other chiral compounds, enantiomers have the same physical and chemical properties. 

In recent years numerous studies have demonstrated biological activity of the chiral compounds. Enantiomers may vastly differ in their activity. They may differ in [52] ... 

In capillary electrophoresis (CE), CDs and their ionic and neutral derivatives have been successfully used as additives in the carrier system for the separation of structural isomers and structurally related compounds [53]. The commonly used neutral CDs are the native a-, /3- and y-CDs and the dimethyl, trimethyl, hydroxyethyl and hydroxypropyl forms [54]. The charged CDs are carboxymethyl, sulfobutyl ether, sulfated and amino CDs. The methyl derivatives of the CD are effective in separating chiral compounds, enantiomers of terbutaline, ephedrine and carnitine. The neutral derivatives of hydroxyalkylated /3-CD and the mixture... 

If compounds have the same topology (constitution) but different topography (geometry), they are called stereoisomers. The configuration expresses the different positions of atoms around stereocenters, stereoaxes, and stereoplanes in 3D space, e.g., chiral structures (enantiomers, diastereomers, atropisomers, helicenes, etc.), or cisftrans (Z/E) configuration. If it is possible to interconvert stereoisomers by a rotation around a C-C single bond, they are called conformers. 

An example of a chiral compound is lactic acid. Two different forms of lactic acid that are mirror images of each other can be defined (Figure 2-69). These two different molecules are called enantiomers. They can be separated, isolated, and characterized experimentally. They are different chemical entities, and some of their properties arc different (c.g., their optical rotation),... 

The Cahn-Ingold-Prelog (CIP) rules stand as the official way to specify chirahty of molecular structures [35, 36] (see also Section 2.8), but can we measure the chirality of a chiral molecule. Can one say that one structure is more chiral than another. These questions are associated in a chemist s mind with some of the experimentally observed properties of chiral compounds. For example, the racemic mixture of one pail of specific enantiomers may be more clearly separated in a given chiral chromatographic system than the racemic mixture of another compound. Or, the difference in pharmacological properties for a particular pair of enantiomers may be greater than for another pair. Or, one chiral compound may rotate the plane of polarized light more than another. Several theoretical quantitative measures of chirality have been developed and have been reviewed elsewhere [37-40]. 

Twenty-eight chiral compounds were separated from their enantiomers by HPLC on a teicoplanin chiral stationary phase. Figure 8-12 shows some of the structures contained in the data set. This is a very complex stationary phase and modeling of the possible interactions with the analytes is impracticable. In such a situation, learning from known examples seemed more appropriate, and the chirality code looked quite appealing for representing such data. 

The usual physical properties such as density melting point and boiling point are iden tical for both enantiomers of a chiral compound... 

Optically Inactive Chiral Compounds. Although chirality is a necessary prerequisite for optical activity, chiral compounds are not necessarily optically active. With an equal mixture of two enantiomers, no net optical rotation is observed. Such a mixture of enantiomers is said to be racemic and is designated as ( ) and not as dl. Racemic mixtures usually have melting points higher than the melting point of either pure enantiomer. 

Chiral separations are concerned with separating molecules that can exist as nonsupetimposable mirror images. Examples of these types of molecules, called enantiomers or optical isomers are illustrated in Figure 1. Although chirahty is often associated with compounds containing a tetrahedral carbon with four different substituents, other atoms, such as phosphoms or sulfur, may also be chiral. In addition, molecules containing a center of asymmetry, such as hexahehcene, tetrasubstituted adamantanes, and substituted aHenes or molecules with hindered rotation, such as some 2,2 disubstituted binaphthyls, may also be chiral. Compounds exhibiting a center of asymmetry are called atropisomers. An extensive review of stereochemistry may be found under Pharmaceuticals, Chiral. 

The presence of asymmetric C atoms in a molecule may, of course, be indicated by diastereotopic shifts and absolute configurations may, as already shown, be determined empirically by comparison of diastereotopic shifts However, enantiomers are not differentiated in the NMR spectrum. The spectrum gives no indication as to whether a chiral compound exists in a racemic form or as a pure enantiomer. 

It is possible to obtain pure enantiomers of chiral compounds. One property of separated enantiomers is to cause the rotation of the plane of polarized light by opposite... 

HPLC separations are one of the most important fields in the preparative resolution of enantiomers. The instrumentation improvements and the increasing choice of commercially available chiral stationary phases (CSPs) are some of the main reasons for the present significance of chromatographic resolutions at large-scale by HPLC. Proof of this interest can be seen in several reviews, and many chapters have in the past few years dealt with preparative applications of HPLC in the resolution of chiral compounds [19-23]. However, liquid chromatography has the attribute of being a batch technique and therefore is not totally convenient for production-scale, where continuous techniques are preferred by far. 

Comparisons of LC and SFC have also been performed on naphthylethylcar-bamoylated-(3-cyclodextrin CSPs. These multimodal CSPs can be used in conjunction with normal phase, reversed phase, and polar organic eluents. Discrete sets of chiral compounds tend to be resolved in each of the three mobile phase modes in LC. As demonstrated by Williams et al., separations obtained in each of the different mobile phase modes in LC could be replicated with a simple CO,-methanol eluent in SFC [54]. Separation of tropicamide enantiomers on a Cyclobond I SN CSP with a modified CO, eluent is illustrated in Fig. 12-4. An aqueous-organic mobile phase was required for enantioresolution of the same compound on the Cyclobond I SN CSP in LC. In this case, SFC offered a means of simplifying method development for the derivatized cyclodextrin CSPs. Higher resolution was also achieved in SFC. 

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. 

Some molecules have more than one chirality center. Enantiomers have opposite configuration at all chirality centers, whereas diastereomers have the same configuration in at least one center but opposite configurations at the others. Epimers are diastereomers that differ in configuration at only one chirality center. A compound with n chirality centers can have a maximum of 2n stereoisomers. 

Except for their effect on plane-polarized light, two enantiomers of a chiral compound have identical physical properties. For example, the two isomers of lactic acid shown below have the same melting point, 52°C, and density, 1.25 g/mL. 

Enantiomers have identical chemical properties, except when they react with other chiral compounds. Because many biochemical substances are chiral, one consequence of this difference in reactivity is that enantiomers may have different odors and pharmacological activities. The molecule has to fit into a cavity, or slot, of a certain shape, either in an odor receptor in the nose or in an enzyme. Only one member of the enantiomeric pair may be able to fit. 

They react at different rates with other chiral compounds. These rates may be so close together that the distinction is practically useless, or they may be so far apart that one enantiomer undergoes the reaction at a conveni t rate while the other does not react at all. This is the reason that many compounds are biologically active while their enantiomers are not. Enantiomers react at the same rate with achiral compounds. ... 

The Cahn-Ingold-Prelog system is unambiguous and easily applicable in most cases. Whether to call an enantiomer (R) or (S) does not depend on correlations, but the configuration must be known before the system can be applied, and this does depend on correlations. The Cahn-Ingold-Prelog system has also been extended to chiral compounds that do not contain chiral atoms.A series of new rules have been proposed to address the few cases where the rules can be ambiguous, as in cyclophanes and other systems. ... 

Although four is the maximum possible number of isomers when the compound has two chiral centers (chiral compounds without a chiral carbon, or with one chiral carbon and another type of chiral center, also follow the rules described here), some compounds have fewer. When the three groups on one chiral atom are the same as those on the other, one of the isomers (called a meso form) has a plane of symmetry, and hence is optically inactive, even though it has two chiral carbons. Tartaric acid is a typical case. There are only three isomers of tartaric acid a pair of enantiomers and an inactive meso form. For compounds that have two chiral atoms, meso forms are found only where the four groups on one of the chiral atoms are the same as those on the other chiral atom. 

It is often possible to convert an achiral compound to a chiral compound by (1) addition of a chiral group (2) running an asymmetric synthesis, and (3) cleavage of the original chiral group. An example is conversion of the achiral 2-pentanone to the chiral 4-methyl-3-heptanone (50). In this case, >99% of the product was the (5) enantiomer. Compound 49 is called a chiral auxiliary because it is used to induce asymmetry and then is removed. 

Kinetic Resolution. Since enantiomers react with chiral compounds at different rates, it is sometimes possible to effect a partial separation by... 

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