Aldehydes => hydroxy-ketones

The aldol reaction yields either a /3-hydroxy aldehyde/ketone or an a, 3-unsatu-rated aldehyde/ketone, depending on the experimental conditions. By learning how to think backward, it s possible to predict when the aldol reaction might be useful in synthesis. Whenever the target molecule contains either a /3-hydroxy aldehyde/ketone or a conjugated enone functional group, it might come from an aldol reaction. 

In addition to the oxidative scission of 1,2-diols, the reaction can be extended to related 1,2-bifunc-tional compounds such as oxiranes, 1,2-dicarbonyl compounds, 2-hydroxy aldehydes, ketones and acids, a-amino alcohols, 1,2-diamines and also to polyols. LTA cleaves a-hydroxy acids much more readily than do periodates and both reagents oxidize 2-hydroxy aldehydes and 1,2-dicarbonyl compounds relatively slowly. Only periodic acid in water reacts with oxiranes via the corresponding diols. 

The aldol reaction is a carbonyl condensation that occurs between two aldehyde or ketone molecules. Aldol reactions are reversible, leading first to j3-hydroxy aldehydes/ketones and then to a,jS unsaturated products. Mixed aldol condensations between two different aldehydes or ketones generally give a mixture of all four possible products. A mixed reaction can be successful, however, if one of the two partners is an unusually good donor (ethyl acetoacetate, for instance) or if it can act only as an acceptor (formaldehyde and benzaldehyde, for instance). Intramolecular aldol condensations of 1,4- and 1,5-diketones are also successful and provide a good way to make five- and six-membered rings. 

Glucose is an equilibrium mixture of cyclic forms (hemiacetals containing a tetrahydropyran), and a small concentration of acyclic polyhydroxyaldehyde, which is responsible for many of the observed chemical reactions. This illustrates the inherent stability of chair conformers of saturated six-membered systems. The propensity for cyclisation is a general one 5-hydroxy-aldehydes, -ketones and -acids all easily form six-membered oxygen-containing rings - lactols and lactones respectively. 

Barium iodate 1-hydrate in granular form is obtained by the reaction in solution of barium ion with iodate ion formed by the slow reduction of periodic acid by lactic acid at room temperature. Periodic acid is a specific oxidant for glycols and a-hydroxy aldehydes, ketones, and acids, but the rate of oxidation is very slow for a-hy-droxy acids. Thus the barium iodate 1-hydrate crystals are slowly formed from a dilute solution of iodate ion which is being formed as a reaction product. 

Hoesch synthesis A variation of the Gattermann synthesis of hydroxy-aldehydes, this reaction has been widely applied to the synthesis of anthocyanidins. It consists of the condensation of polyhydric phenols with nitriles by the action of hydrochloric acid (with or without ZnCl2 as a catalyst). This gives an iminehydrochloride which on hydrolysis with water gives the hydroxy-ketone. 

The polyhydric alcohols of Solubility Group II are liquids of relatively high boiling point and may be detected inter alia by the reactions already described for Alcohols (see 6). Compounds containing two hydroxyl groups attached to adjacent carbon atoms (1 2-glyeols), a-hydroxy aldehydes and ketones, and 1 2-diketones may be identified by the periodic acid test, given in reaction 9. 

Another reaction that is characteristic of a-hydroxy aldehydes or ketones, which has been found of value for the characterisation of sugars, is the formation of osazones with phenylhydrazine. This reagent reacts with either an aldose... 

Formaldehyde condenses with itself in an aldol-type reaction to yield lower hydroxy aldehydes, hydroxy ketones, and other hydroxy compounds the reaction is autocatalytic and is favored by alkaline conditions. Condensation with various compounds gives methylol (—CH2OH) and methylene (=CH2) derivatives. The former are usually produced under alkaline or neutral conditions, the latter under acidic conditions or in the vapor phase. In the presence of alkahes, aldehydes and ketones containing a-hydrogen atoms undergo aldol reactions with formaldehyde to form mono- and polymethylol derivatives. Acetaldehyde and 4 moles of formaldehyde give pentaerythritol (PE) ... 

An alternate method of producing the 21-hydroxy-20-ketone consists in lithium aluminum hydride reduction of the dimethyl acetal, hydrolysis to the 20-hydroxy-21-aldehyde and rearrangement, preferably via the bisulfite addition product... 

Aldol condensation (Sections 18.9-18.10) When an aldol addition is carried out so that the (i-hydroxy aldehyde or ketone dehydrates under the conditions of its formation, the product is described as arising by an aldol condensation. 

The addition of the a-carbon of an enolizable aldehyde or ketone 1 to the carbonyl group of a second aldehyde or ketone 2 is called the aldol reaction It is a versatile method for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds, and is frequently used in organic chemistry. The initial reaction product is a /3-hydroxy aldehyde (aldol) or /3-hydroxy ketone (ketol) 3. A subsequent dehydration step can follow, to yield an o ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound 4. In that case the entire process is also called aldol condensation. 

The next step is the nucleophilic addition of the enolate anion 5 to the carbonyl group of another, non-enolized, aldehyde molecule 2. The product which is obtained after workup is a /3-hydroxy aldehyde or ketone 3 ... 

Water can add reversibly to o ,/3-unsalurated aldehydes and ketones to yield /3-hydroxy aldehydes and ketones, although the position of the equilibrium generally favors unsaturated reactant rather than saturated adduct. A related addition to an c /S-unsaturated carboxylic acid occurs in numerous biological pathways, such as the citric acid cycle of food metabolism where ds-aconitate is converted into isocitrate by conjugate addition of water to a double bond. 

An aldol reaction combines two molecules of reactant by forming a bond between the a- carbon of one partner and the carbonyl carbon of the second partner. The product is a /3-hydroxy aldehyde or ketone, meaning that the two oxygen atoms in the product have a 1,3 relationship. 

The jS-hydroxy aldehydes or ketones formed in aldol reactions can be easily dehydrated to yield a -unsaturated products, or conjugated enones. In fact, it s this loss of water that gives the condensation reaction its name, because water condenses out of the reaction when the enone product forms. 

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