Chiral compounds optically active nature

Despite its efficiency in numerous cases optical resolution is by no means a trivial operation. In each case the optimum method has to be found by laborious trial and error procedures the optical purity of the material has to be secured and its absolute configuration has to be established before the compound can be used in a synthetic sequence. These drawbacks of optical resolution led chemists to start their syntheses from optically active natural products (the so-called chiral carbon pool ). A variety of suitable ex-chiral-pool compounds including carbohydrates, amino acids, hydroxy acids, and terpenoids are shown. 

Leuenberger, H. G., Boguth, W., Widmer, E., and Zell, R. 1976. Synthesis of optically active natural carotenoids and structurally related compounds. I. Synthesis of chiral key compound (4A 6A)-4-hydioxy-2,2,6-trimethylcyclohexanone. Helvetica Chimica... 

Two key chiral building blocks used in the total synthesis of a-tocopherol were prepared via microbial reduction of unsaturated carbonyl compounds with baker s yeast and with Geotrichum candidum Similarly, a key intermediate in the total synthesis of optically active natural carotenoids was prepared by microbial reduction of oxoisophorone with baker s yeast. An alternative approach to the synthesis of a-tocopherol employs a chiral building block that was obtained by baker s yeast reduction of 2-methyl-5-phenylpentadienal. ... 

The desire to produce enantiomerically pure pharmaceuticals and other fine chemicals has advanced the field of asymmetric catalytic technologies. Since the independent discoveries of Knowles and Homer [1,2] the number of innovative asymmetric catalysis for hydrogenation and other reactions has mushroomed. Initially, nature was the sole provider of enantiomeric and diastereoisomeric compounds these form what is known as the chiral pool. This pool is comprised of relatively inexpensive, readily available, optically active natural products, such as carbohydrates, hydroxy acids, and amino acids, that can be used as starting materials for asymmetric synthesis [3,4]. Before 1968, early attempts to mimic nature s biocatalysis through noble metal asymmetric catalysis primarily focused on a heterogeneous catalyst that used chiral supports [5] such as quartz, natural fibers, and polypeptides. An alternative strategy was hydrogenation of substrates modified by a chiral auxiliary [6]. 

The most conunonly used descriptors cannot reflect enantiomerism, due to their determination in achiral systems. Predictions based on these descriptors must yield the same activity for both enantiomers of a chiral compound. But in natural (chiral) systems their impacts may be dramatically different, as, for example, the teratogenicity of thalidomide. Especially methods for calculating descriptors do not generally discriminate between enantiomers, not even between diastereomers, which leads to identical predictions for different compounds. The (optical) isomerism of chemical structures must, therefore, be deliberately considered in QSAR studies. 

The chiral pool refers to readily available optically active natural products, some of which are commercially used in quantities of 10 -10 tonnes per year [5], Among them, the most inexpensive compounds are a-amino acids, like monosodium L-glutamate, or carbohydrates, like dextrose or sorbitol. The success of the second method depends on the availability of particular catalysts. One rather special example, how efficient stereoselective synthesis can work, is the syn-selective aldol reaction followed by a stereoselective alkene hydroboration and ketone reduction (Figure 1.8) which were used by Paterson et aJ. [26] to synthesize intermediates for the antibiotic oleandomycin. According to Paterson et al., four new stereocenters are formed in only two synthetic steps [9]. For the purpose of separating racemic mixtures... 

Further utility of the Andersen sulphoxides synthesis is demonstrated by the preparation of optically active unsaturated sulphoxides which were first prepared by Stirling and coworkers359 from sulphinate 276 and the appropriate vinylic Grignard reagents. Later on, Posner and Tang360 prepared in a similar way a series of ( )-l-alkenyl p-tolyl sulphoxides. Posner s group accomplished also the synthesis of (+)-(S)-2-(p-tolylsulphinyl)-2-cyclopentenone 287, which is a key compound in the chiral synthesis of various natural products361 (equation 159). 

Sulfoxides (R1—SO—R2), which are tricoordinate sulfur compounds, are chiral when R1 and R2 are different, and a-sulfmyl carbanions derived from optically active sulfoxides are known to retain the chirality. Therefore, these chiral carbanions usually give products which are rich in one diastereomer upon treatment with some prochiral reagents. Thus, optically active sulfoxides have been used as versatile reagents for asymmetric syntheses of many naturally occurring products116, since optically active a-sulfinyl carbanions can cause asymmetric induction in the C—C bond formation due to their close vicinity. In the following four subsections various reactions of a-sulfinyl carbanions are described (A) alkylation and acylation, (B) addition to unsaturated bonds such as C=0, C=N or C= N, (C) nucleophilic addition to a, /5-unsaturated sulfoxides, and (D) reactions of allylic sulfoxides. 

The chiral centre first appears in cyanide (11) but the acid (10) is the ideal compound for resolution as it can form a salt with a naturally-occurring optically active base. 

Reaction of optically active a-sulphinyl acetate 298a with prochiral carbonyl compounds proceeds with a high asymmetric induction - , the degree of which depends on the nature of substituents at the carbonyl group (equation 252 Table 22) . The jS-hydroxy sulphoxides 422 formed may be transformed to optically active p-hydroxycarboxylic esters 423 (equation 253) and optically active long-chain lactones 424 99 (equation 254). Corey and coworkers have used this method to introduce a chiral centre at C-3 in their synthesis of maytansin °°, and Papageorgiou and Benezra for the synthesis of chiral a-hydroxyalkyl acrylates 425 ° (equation 255). 

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