Ephedrines, configuration syntheses

Despite the high sensitivity of the methods for chiral resolution described in Section IV.D.4, more direct methods are afforded by NMR spectroscopy, especially for the products of synthesis. Ephedrine (179), pseudoephedrine (180a) and its Me ether (180b) yield stable epimeric N — BH3 adducts on treatment with borane. The configuration of the nitrogen moiety was established by NMR, taking into account the conformational analysis of the molecule392. 

With benzaldehyde 144 or halogenated derivatives (Cl, F) as acceptors the yeast-PDC-catalyzed addition proceeds with almost complete stereoselectivity to furnish the corresponding (R)-configurated 1-hydroxy-1-phenylpropanones 145 [447]. For practical reasons, whole yeast cells are most often used as the catalyst, with only small loss of enantioselectivity [423,424]. The conversion of benzaldehyde in particular has gained industrial importance because the acyloin is an important precursor for the synthesis of L-(-)-ephedrine [448]. Otherwise, the substrate tolerance is remarkably broad for aromatic aldehydes on the laboratory scale, however, yields of acyloins are usually low because of the prior or consequent reductive metabolism of aldehyde substrate and product, giving rise to considerable quantities of alcohol 146 and vicinol diols 147, respectively [423,424,449], The range of structural variability covers both higher a-oxo-acids (e.g. -butyrate, -valerate) as the donor component, as well as a,/J-un-saturated aldehydes (e.g. cinnamaldehyde 148) as the acceptor [450]. 

Chiral [160, l70, l80]phosphomonoesters and ATPy[l60, l70, lsO] have been synthesized by Knowles and associates, who devised the procedure outlined in Fig. 19 [51-55], The procedure has been used to synthesize phenyl[160, l70, l80]phos-phate and 2-[160,170,180]phospho-D-glycerate as well as the propylene glycol ester shown. The starting cyclic adduct was prepared by reaction of (— )-ephedrine with P17OCl3, giving a separable mixture of 2-chloro-l,3,2-oxazaphospholidin-2-ones whose chemistry had been described [56], The major isomer was converted to (/ p)-l-[160, nO,180]phospho-1,2-propanediol and (Sp)-ATPy[l60, nO, lsO] by the reactions shown. The stereochemistry at each step of the synthesis was well prece-dented in the literature nevertheless, the configurations were verified by independent methods described in the next section. 

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