Imine hydrolysis

Rearrangement to an open chain imine (165) provides an intermediate whose acidity toward lithiomethylthiazole (162) is rather pronounced. Proton abstraction by 162 gives the dilithio intermediate (166) and regenerates 2-methylthiazole for further reaction. During the final hydrolysis, 166 affords the dimer (167) that could be isolated by molecular distillation (433). A proof in favor of this mechanism is that when a large excess of butyllithium is added to (161) at -78°C and the solution is allowed to warm to room temperature, the deuterolysis affords only dideuterated thiazole (170), with no evidence of any dimeric product. Under these conditions almost complete dianion formation results (169), and the concentration of nonmetalated thiazole is nil. (Scheme 79). This dimerization bears some similitude with the formation of 2-methylthia-zolium anhydrobase dealt with in Chapter DC. Meyers could confirm the independence of the formation of the benzyl-type (172) and the aryl-type... 

An example of a biologically important aide hyde is pyridoxal phosphate which is the active form of vitamin Bg and a coenzyme for many of the reac tions of a ammo acids In these reactions the ammo acid binds to the coenzyme by reacting with it to form an imine of the kind shown in the equation Re actions then take place at the ammo acid portion of the imine modifying the ammo acid In the last step enzyme catalyzed hydrolysis cleaves the imme to pyridoxal and the modified ammo acid... 

As a class of compounds, nitriles have broad commercial utility that includes their use as solvents, feedstocks, pharmaceuticals, catalysts, and pesticides. The versatile reactivity of organonitnles arises both from the reactivity of the C=N bond, and from the abiHty of the cyano substituent to activate adjacent bonds, especially C—H bonds. Nitriles can be used to prepare amines, amides, amidines, carboxyHc acids and esters, aldehydes, ketones, large-ring cycHc ketones, imines, heterocycles, orthoesters, and other compounds. Some of the more common transformations involve hydrolysis or alcoholysis to produce amides, acids and esters, and hydrogenation to produce amines, which are intermediates for the production of polyurethanes and polyamides. An extensive review on hydrogenation of nitriles has been recendy pubHshed (10). 

Cyanopyridazines add ammonia, primary and secondary amines and hydroxylamine to give amidines or amidoximes. Substituted amides, thioamides and carboximidates can be also prepared. With hydrazine, 3-pyridazinylcarbohydrazide imide is formed and addition of methylmagnesium iodide with subsequent hydrolysis of the imine affords the corresponding pyridazinyl methyl ketone. 

Other potential synthetic routes to these unsaturated aziridine derivatives which involve the addition of nitrenes to allenes <75JOC224), carbenes to imines with subsequent hydrolysis <67JA362), and of carbenoid species to ketenimines <76TL1317,79TL559) have been investigated but are collectively of little or no preparative value. 

A -1,3,4-Oxadiazolin-2-imine, N-phenyl-pyrolysis, 6, 437 A -1,3,4-Oxadiazolin-5-imines IR spectra, 6, 429 A -1,3,4-Oxadiazolin-2-imines hydrolysis, 6, 438... 

In general, imines are too reactive to be used to protect carbonyl groups. In a synthesis of juncusol, however, a bromo- and an iodocyclohexylimine of two identical aromatic aldehydes were coupled by an Ullman coupling reaction modi-fied by Ziegler. The imines were cleaved by acidic hydrolysis (aq. oxalic acid, THF, 20°, 1 h, 95% yield). Imines of aromatic aldehydes have also been prepared... 

The hydrolysis of simple imines occurs readily in aqueous acid and has been studied in great detail by kinetic methods. The precise mechanism is a fimction of the reactant structure and the pH of the solution. The overall mechanism consists of an addition of water to the C=N bond, followed by expulsion of the amine from a tetrahedral intermediate. ... 

The formation of imines mkes place by a mechanism that is the reverse of the hydrolysis. Preparative proc ures often ensure completion of the reaction by removing water as it is formed by azeotropic distillation or by the use of an irreversible dehydrating agent. 

The other C=N systems included in Scheme 8.2 are more stable to aqueous hydrolysis than are the imines. For many of these compounds, the equilibrium constants for formation are high, even in aqueous solution. The additional stability can be attributed to the participation of the atom adjacent to the nitrogen in delocalized bonding. This resonance interaction tends to increase electron density at the sp carbon and reduces its reactivity toward nucleophiles. 

The kinetics of the hydrolysis of some imines derived from benzophenone anc primary amines revealed the normal dependence of mechanism on pH with ratedetermining nucleophilic attack at high pH and rate-determining decomposition of the tetrahedral intermediate at low pH. The simple primary amines show a linear correlation between the rate of nucleophilic addition and the basicity of the amine Several diamines which were included in the study, in particular A, B, and C, al showed a positive (more reactive) deviation from the correlation line for the simple amines. Why might these amines be more reactive than predicted on the basis of thei ... 

Assume that the usual mechanism for hydrolysis of an imine, Im, is operative, i.e., that the hydrolysis occurs through a tetrahedral intermediate, TI ... 

Assume that the steady-state approximation can be applied to the intermediate TI. Derive the kinetic expression for hydrolysis of the imine. How many variables must be determined to construct the pH-rate profile What simplifying assumptions are justified at very high and very low pH values What are the kinetic expressions that result from these assumptions ... 

Deuterium labeling of C-18 has also been accomplished by an alternate procedure adapted from the Nagata steroid synthesis. During the course of the total synthesis of pregnanolone, thevC-18 function is introduced in the form of a nitrile group. Reduction of this function in intermediate (247) with lithium aluminum deuteride leads to a deuterated imine (248), which upon Wolff-Kishner reduction and acid-catalyzed hydrolysis... 

The free 17j8-amine can be transformed to the 17-ketone by chlorination to the iV-chloroamine, dehydrohalogenation to the imine, and finally hydrolysis.While these latter steps proceed in reasonable yield, the overall sequence does not compare well in efficiency with the process starting with a A -20-keto steroid ... 

Step 3 Hydrolysis of the reananged imine gives L-alanine and a-ketoglutaiate. 

These observations are explained by the mechanism shown in the figure. NaBH4 inactivates Class I aldolases by transfer of a hydride ion (H ) to the imine carbon atom of the enzyme-substrate adduct. The resulting secondary amine is stable to hydrolysis, and the active-site lysine is thus permanently modified and inactivated. NaBH4 inactivates Class I aldolases in the presence of either dihydroxyacetone-P or fructose-1,6-bisP, but inhibition doesn t occur in the presence of glyceraldehyde-3-P. 

The transaldolase functions primarily to make a useful glycolytic substrate from the sedoheptulose-7-phosphate produced by the first transketolase reaction. This reaction (Figure 23.35) is quite similar to the aldolase reaction of glycolysis, involving formation of a Schiff base intermediate between the sedohep-tulose-7-phosphate and an active-site lysine residue (Figure 23.36). Elimination of the erythrose-4-phosphate product leaves an enamine of dihydroxyacetone, which remains stable at the active site (without imine hydrolysis) until the other substrate comes into position. Attack of the enamine carbanion at the carbonyl carbon of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate is followed by hydrolysis of the Schiff base (imine) to yield the product fructose-6-phosphate. 

A number of imine derivatives have been prepared as amine protective groups, but most of these have not seen extensive use. The most widely used are the ben-zylidene and diphenylmethylene derivatives. The less used derivatives are listed, for completeness, with their references at the end of this section. For the most part, they are prepared from the aldehyde and the amine by water removal cleavage is effected by acid hydrolysis. 

Comforth has reviewed literature reports and independently studied the special cases of reaction of 1 with salicylaldehyde and with 2-acetoxybenzaldehyde. Coumarins (10) are afforded in the condensation of 1 with salicylaldehyde or its imine, whereas when 2-acetoxybenzaldehyde is used, acetoxy oxazolone 12 is the major product. The initial aldol condensation product between the oxazolone and 2-acetoxybenzaldehyde is the 4-(a-hydroxybenzyl)oxazolone 11, in which base-catalyzed intramolecular transacetylation is envisioned. The product 9 (R = Ac) can either be acetylated on the phenolic hydroxy group, before or after loss of acetic acid, to yield the oxazolone 12, or it can rearrange, by a second intramolecular process catalyzed by base and acid, to the hydrocoumarin, which loses acetic acid to yield 10. When salicylaldehyde is the starting material, aldol intermediate 9 (R = H) can rearrange directly to a hydrocoumarin. Comforth also accessed pure 4-(2 -hydroxyphenylmethylene)-2-phenyloxazol-5(4//)-one (13) through hydrolysis of 12 with 88% sulfuric acid. 

Modification of the Erlenmeyer reaction has been developed using imines of the carbonyl compounds, obtained with aniline," benzylamine or n-butylamine. Ivanova has also shown that an A-methylketimine is an effective reagent in the Erlenmeyer azlactone synthesis. Quantitative yield of 19 is generated by treatment of 3 equivalents of 2-phenyl-5(4ff)-oxazolone (2) (freshly prepared in benzene) with 1 equivalent of iV-methyl-diphenylmethanimine (18) in benzene. Products resulting from aminolysis (20), alkali-catalyzed hydrolysis (21), and alcoholysis (22) were also described. 

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