Enolization keto acids

As would be expected oiHhe basis of electronegativity arguments, enols are much more acidic than the corresponding keto forms. It has been possible to determine the pAT of the enol form of acetophenone as being 10.5. The ipK of the keto form is 18.4. Because the enolate is the same for both equilibria, the pAT values are related to the enol keto equilibrium. 

P-Keto acid Enol form of ketone Ketone... 

Oxidation of ecgonine (2) by means of chromium trioxide was found to afford a keto acid (3). This was formulated as shown based on the fact that the compound undergoes ready themnal decarboxylation to tropinone (4)The latter had been obtained earlier from degradative studies in connection with the structural determination of atropine (5) and its structure established independently. Confirmation for the structure came from the finding that carbonation of the enolate of tropinone does in fact lead back to ecgonine. Reduction, esterification with methanol followed by benzoylation then affords cocaine. 

Decarboxylation is not a general reaction of carboxylic acids. Rather, it is unique to compounds that have a second carbonyl group two atoms away from the —COoH. That is, only substituted malonic acids and /3-keto acids undergo loss of CC>2 on heating. The decarboxylation reaction occurs by a cyclic mechanism and involves initial formation of an enol, thereby accounting for the need to have a second carbonyl group appropriately positioned. 

Step 2 of Figure 29.13 Decarboxylation and Phosphorylation Decarboxylation of oxaloacetate, a jB-keto acid, occurs by the typical retro-aldol mechanism like that in step 3 in the citric acid cycle (Figure 29.12), and phosphorylation of the resultant pyruvate enolate ion by GTP occurs concurrently to give phosphoenol-pyruvate. The reaction is catalyzed by phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. 

An important task remaining is the stereocontrolled introduction of a methyl group at C-8. When a cold (-78 °C) solution of 14 in THF is treated successively with LDA and methyl iodide and then warmed to -45 °C, intermediate 24 admixed with minor amounts of the C-8 epimer is formed in a yield of 95 %. The action of LDA on 14 generates a lactone enolate which is alkylated on carbon in a diastereoselective fashion with methyl iodide to give 24. It is of no consequence that 24 is contaminated with small amounts of the unwanted C-8 epimer because hydrolysis of the mixture with lithium hydroxide affords, after Jones oxidation of the secondary alcohol, a single keto acid (13) in an overall yield of 80%. Apparently, the undesired diastereoisomer is epimerized to the desired one under the basic conditions of the saponification step. 

Here too there is an enol that tautomerizes to the product. The mechanism is illustrated for the case of P-keto acids, ° but it is likely that malonic acids, a-cyano acids, a-nitro acids, and P,y-unsaturated acids behave similarly, since similar six-membered transition states can be written for them. Some a,P-unsaturated acids are also decarboxylated by this mechanism by isomerizing to the p,y-isomers before... 

A bifnnctional enol-CoA hydratase and 3-hydroxyacetyl-CoA dehydrogenase are used in the degradation of CoA-alkenoic esters to the p-keto acid. This is then degraded to acetyl-CoA and the lower alkanoate ester by 3-ketoacetyl CoA thiolase and acetyl-CoA thiolase. 

This arrangement of subgroups is due to the hypothetical biosynthetic sequence. It assumes that precursors for these alkaloids are the Af-methylphth-alideisoquinolinium salts, whose presence in plants is well documented. Enol lactones may be the initial degradation products formed in a Hofmann-type jft-elimination process. They could be hydrated to the keto acids and in the next step oxidated in air to the diketo acids. Diketo adds may undergo further oxidative cleavage to yield simple alkaloids of the fumariflorine (87) type 85,86), which seem to be the final products of the metabolism of phthalideiso-quinoline alkaloids. 

Parent phthalideisoquinoline alkaloid Configuration Enol lactone Configuration Keto acid Diketo acid Ene lactam Configuration... 

Enol lactones can also be obtained from keto acids by enolization-dehydration. Adlumidiceine (103) as well as N-methylhydrasteine (104) when heated in toluene with acetic anhydride or p-toluenosulfonic acid were transformed to enol lactones 97 (97) and 98 (5,102), respectively. Narceine (106) under the influence of PC13 yielded 101 (87,100). 

In a hydrolytic environment enol lactones can be easily hydrolyzed to the corresponding keto acids. Both Ai-methylhydrastines (98 and 99) when allowed to stand in aqueous acetone gave rise to N-methylhydrasteine (104) (5). 

Secophthalideisoquinoline keto acids are postulated to be biosynthesized from phthalideisoquinoline metho salts via enol lactones. Such transformations occur easily in laboratory experiments (Section III,B,1). There are... 

Steric hindrances may also be the reason why quaternary salts of 8-alkylnarcotoline (130) were transformed during Hofmann degradation to analogous keto acids (131) (111,112) and not to the enol lactones (Scheme 24). In some cases (5,87) the keto acids and their esters have been synthesized from the corresponding enol lactones by hydration (Section III,A,2). Nornarceine (107) was prepared from JV-benzyl-(—)-a-narcotinium bromide (139, X = Br) by Hofmann degradation followed by N-debenzylation and ester hydrolysis (109). 

Keto acids can be dehydrated to enol lactones (Section III,A,1). They may also undergo esterification with alcohols e.g., /V-methylhydrasteine (104) in methanol at room temperature gave the expected keto ester 126 (R + R = CH2, R1 = CH3) (5,87). Sodium borohydride reduction of keto acid 104 supplies the saturated y-lactone 132 identical with that obtained from enol lactone 98 (5). 

It has been postulated that secophthalideisoquinoline ene lactams and hydroxy lactams are most probably artifacts of isolation resulting from the reaction of enol lactones or keto acids with ammonia during the extraction process. The hydroxy lactams are probably formed initially and then undergo dehydration to give ene lactams (5,8). For this reason, this section covers the hydroxy lactams in addition to the ene lactams. The hydroxy lactams are... 

Nitroalkenes react with lithium dianions of carboxylic acids or with hthium enolates at -100 °C, and subsequent treatment of the Michael adducts with aqueous acid gives y-keto acids or esters in a one-pot operation, respectively (Eq. 4.52).66 The sequence of Michael addition to nitroalkenes and Nef reaction (Section 6.1) provides a useful tool for organic synthesis. For example, the addition of carbanions derived from sulfones to nitroalkenes followed by the Nef reaction and elimination of the sulfonyl group gives a,P-unsaturated ketones (Eq. 4.53).67... 

It will be seen that the enediolic system can theoretically be written in the isomeric 2-keto (II) or 3-keto (III) forms and these in turn are seen to be derived from the 2-keto and the 3-keto acids IV and V, respectively (compare with benzoin which reacts with iodine in an analogous fashion to L-ascorbic acid). Consequently the synthesis of L-ascorbic acid and of its analogs has consisted in devising methods for the formation of 2-keto or 3-keto hydroxy acids followed by their enolization and lactonization. Four main methods are available for the synthesis of analogs of L-ascorbic acid containing the characteristic five-membered unsaturated enediolic ring. 

When stilboestrol (diethylstilbestrol, 62) was photolysed in aqueous methanol at 254 nm it gave the stable 4a,4b-dihydrophenanthrene dione (63). The mechanism required a photo trans-cis isomerization, photocyclization and spontaneous enol-keto tautomerism [53,54]. Previous workers had carried out a similar irradiation in dilute acetic acid and obtained the expected aromatic product (64) [55],... 

There are many reports describing the preparation of various butyrolac-tones from AAs. When r-butyl 2-dibenzylaminoacetate in the form of its Li-enolate was treated with (5)-0-benzyllactic aldehyde, a mixture of four diastereoisomeric hydroxy-AAs was obtained. After separation and further treatment, three lactones were obtained (Scheme 17) (87T2317). Similar compounds were obtained from a-acylamino-y-keto acids after cycliza-tion (75CC905). 

The mechanistic steps can be deduced by inspection of structures and conditions. Enolate anion formation from diethyl malonate under basic conditions is indicated, and that this must attack the epoxide in an Sn2 reaction is implicated by the addition of the malonate moiety and disappearance of the epoxide. The subsequent ring formation follows logically from the addition anion, and is analogous to base hydrolysis of an ester. Ester hydrolysis followed by decarboxylation of the P-keto acid is then implicated by the acidic conditions and structural relationships. 

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