Side Chains, degradation

The steroid ring system is not oxidized to carbon dioxide and water in animals (59,61,133,162,315,628,669) but undergoes enzymic reactions which degrade side-chain and angular methyl groups, and hydroxylate and dehydrogenate the nucleus (216). Figure 27 depicts some of these interrelated transformations. The metabolic... 

Figure 19.24 Examples of sterols with degraded side chains.

The major problem in such conversions is the degradation of the branched carbon side-chain on C-17 which is present in all abundant steroids and lacking in all steroid hormones. The most important starting material used in industry today is diosgenin from the Mexican dioscorea plant. It is degraded by the method of Marker to 16-dehydropregnenolone in 45% total yield. This compound is a key substance in the production of several hormones with anabolic, catabolic, and sexual effects. 

Cleavage of Carbon—Carbon Bonds. Under appropriate conditions, the propanoid side chain in lignin maybe mptured to form three-, two-, or one-carbon fragments. This carbon—carbon fragmentation occurs in a variety of laboratory treatments and technical processes such as in bleaching of chemical pulps with CI2, CIO2, and O2, in microbial degradation (15), and in photooxidation (16). 

A technique based on ozonation, in contrast, provides information on the stmcture of the lignin side chain by degrading the aromatic rings (33). Thus the side chain of the dominant stmcture ia all native lignins, the arylglycerol—P-aryl ether moiety, can be obtained ia the form of erythronic and threonic acids. Ozonation proves to be an elegant method for determination of the stereospecificity ia lignin. 

Structure of xanthan has been determined by chemical degradation and methylation analysis (335,336) it is composed of repeating units consisting of a main chain of D-glucopyranosyl residues with trisaccharide side chains made up of D-mannopyranosyl and D-glucopyranosyluronic acid residues. 

Bacterial removal of sterol side chains is carried out by a stepwise P-oxidation, whereas the degradation of the perhydrocyclopentanophenanthrene nucleus is prevented by metaboHc inhibitors (54), chemical modification of the nucleus (55), or the use of bacterial mutants (11,56). P-Sitosterol [83-46-5] (10), a plant sterol, has been used as a raw material for the preparation of 4-androstene-3,17-dione [63-05-8] (13) and related compounds using selected mutants of the P-sitosterol-degrading bacteria (57) (Fig. 2). 

Use of D-amino acids in the synthesis of a hairpin loop portion from the CD4 receptor provides a stable CD4 receptor mimic, which blocks experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (144). This synthetic constmct is not simply the mirror image or enantiomer of the CD4 hairpin loop, but rather an aH-D-constmct in the reverse sequence, thus providing stereochemicaHy similar side-chain projections of the now inverted backbone (Fig. 11). This peptide mimetic, unlike its aH-L amino acid counterpart, is resistant to en2yme degradation. As one would expect, the aH-D amino acid CD4 hairpin loop, synthesi2ed in the natural direction, the enantiomer of the natural constmct, is inactive. 

When the polymers are exposed to ultraviolet radiation, the activated ketone functionahties can fragment by two different mechanisms, known as Norrish types I and II. The degradation of polymers with the carbonyl functionahty in the backbone of the polymer results in chain cleavage by both mechanisms, but when the carbonyl is in the polymer side chain, only Norrish type II degradation produces main-chain scission (37,49). A Norrish type I reaction for backbone carbonyl functionahty is shown by equation 5, and a Norrish type II reaction for backbone carbonyl functionahty is equation 6. 

Processing Raw Materials. Along with the aforementioned chemical methods of processing steroid raw materials, microbial transformations have been and are used in a number of commercial degradation processes. The microbial degradation of the C17 side chain of the two most common sterols, cholesterol (2) and P-sitosterol (41), is a principal commercial method for the preparation of starting materials in Japan and the... 

Subsequent synthesis of Vitamin D metaboUtes kivolved oxidative degradation of the vitamin D molecule to obtain the C- and D-ring portion with the kitact side chain. Recombkiation of this molecule with an appropriate stmcture containing the A-ring was then carried out by a Wittig-type condensation. 

The parallel synthesis of furans from a-hydroxycarbonyl compounds is frequently conducted using aldoses or ketoses as readily available sources of this functional grouping, especially as the resulting polyhydroxyalkyl side-chain can be removed easily by oxidative degradation (Schemes 67d and 67e) 56MI30300). 

Mass spectra of the same diaziridines were reported later (74JOU1140). Whereas in longer alkyl side chains of diaziridines the typical amine degradation by n -1 carbon atoms predominates, successive elimination of NH and methyl was observed in (37a). The 1-methyl compound (37b) undergoes competitive elimination of NH and MeN. 

Three cartx>n degradation of a caiboxyflc acid side chain (see Baibler-Wleland). 

Additional applications are exemplified by the well-known Meystre-Miescher degradation of the bile acid side chain and, more recently, in the preparation of a-pyrones from a,iS-unsaturated lactones. ... 

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