14-hydroxy preparation

Ordinary commercial camphor is (-i-)-cam phor, from the wood of the camphor tree. Cinnamonum camphora. Camphor is of great technical importance, being used in the manufacture of celluloid and explosives, and for medical purposes, /t is manufactured from pinene through bornyl chloride to camphene, which is either directly oxidized to camphor or is hydrated to isoborneol, which is then oxidized to camphor. A large number of camphor derivatives have been prepared, including halogen, nitro and hydroxy derivatives and sulphonic acids. 

Isocroionic acid, -crotonic acid, cis-croionic acid. Colourless needles m.p. 14 C, b.p. 169 C. Prepared by distilling -hydroxy-glutaric acid under reduced pressure. Converted to a-crotonic acid by heating at 180 C, or by the action of bromine and sunlight on an aqueous solution. 

Schaffer s acid, CioHg04S. 2-hydroxy-7-naphthalene sulphonic acid. Obtained by sulphonating 2-naphthol with a small amount of sulphuric acid at a higher temperature than is used for the preparation of crocein acid. A valuable dyestuff intermediate. 

Coumarin is usually prepared by heating salicylaldehyde with acetic anhydride and sodium acetate (i.e., the Perkin cinnamic acid synthesis, p. 23 6), whereby the 0" hydroxy-cinnamic acid (I) undergoes cyclisation to coumarin. Coumarins having substituents in the benzene ring can often be similarly prepared. 

For the preparation of 4-substituted coumarins, a phenol may be condensed with ethyl acetoacetate under the influence of sulphuric acid. Thus resorcinol (II) readily undergoes this condensation (which is represented diagrammatically above) to give 7-hydroxy-4-methyl-coumarin (III). Note that the coumarins, like all 2 pyrones, are systematically lactones. 

The only important precaution in this preparation is to ensure an excess of zinc chloride over sodium cyanide. If the latter is in excess, the zinc cyanide generally precipitates as a sticky mass, which is difficult to filter and unsatisfactory for the preparation of hydroxy-aldehydes. 

Crystalline derivatives may be prepared with xanthhydrol (9-hydroxy-xanthen), but the reagent is comparatively, expensive. Xanthhydrol reacts with primary amide,s with the formation of crystalline xanthyl-amides or 9-acylamidoxanthens ... 

In general, benzoylation of aromatic amines finds less application than acetylation in preparative work, but the process is often employed for the identification and characterisation of aromatic amines (and also of hydroxy compounds). Benzoyl chloride (Section IV, 185) is the reagent commonly used. This reagent is so slowly hydrolysed by water that benzoylation can be carried out in an aqueous medium. In the Schotten-Baumann method of benzoylation the amino compound or its salt is dissolved or suspended in a slight excess of 8-15 per cent, sodium hydroxide solution, a small excess (about 10-15 per cent, more than the theoretical quantity) of benzoyl chloride is then added and the mixture vigorously shaken in a stoppered vessel (or else the mixture is stirred mechanically). Benzoylation proceeds smoothly and the sparingly soluble benzoyl derivative usually separates as a solid. The sodium hydroxide hydrolyses the excess of benzoyl chloride, yielding sodium benzoate and sodium chloride, which remain in solution ... 

This reaction, applicable only to the preparation of hydroxy-aldehydee, is alternative to the Gattermann aldehyde reaction (or the Adams modification of it) given under 4. The yields are usually smaller, but a large quantity of the phenol may be recovered. The following mechanism is consistent with the known facts ... 

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