J8-Carboline

The intense blue color which is obtained when tryptophan, in the presence of an aldehyde, is treated with concentrated sulfuric acid containing an oxidizing agent (Adamkiewicz-Hopkins-Cole reaction) was beheved to involve formation of a tetrahydro-j8-carboline intermediate, since most l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carbohne derivatives yield a similar color with concentrated sulfuric acid containing an oxidizing agent. The two colors have now been shown to have different absorption spectra. The nature of the carboline-blue color is still obscure. 

The decarboxylated products are obtained directly, however, if condensation of tryptamine with the a-oxo acid is carried out in aqueous solution at elevated temperature. This direct synthesis of a l-substituted-l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carboline has been carried out with... 

Tryptophan condenses with a-oxo acids at room temperature to yield l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carboline-l,3-dicarboxylic acids. Both gly-oxylic acid and pyruvic acid yield the expected products. 

A variety of l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carbolines have been prepared from 3-piperidone phenylhydrazone derivatives. Used initially to obtain pentacyclic derivatives (35) related to the yohimbe alkaloids, this route was later extended to the synthesis of tetracyclic compounds (36). l-Methyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-j8-carboline (37) was prepared in low yield by heating cyclohexanone 2-methyl-3-pyridylhydrazone with zinc chloride, a synthesis probably based on the similar preparation of the tetracyclic compound 38 starting from the corresponding quinolylhydrazine. Abramovitch and Adams extended this approach to the cyclization of cyclohexanone 3-pyri-dylhydrazone (39) itself. The main product was 6,7,8,9-tetrahydro-8-carboline (40), a smaller amount of the j8-isomer (41) also being obtained. This provides a convenient and readily reproducible route to the otherwise difficultly accessible 8-carboline ring system. The favored attack at carbon-2 over carbon-4 of the pyridine nucleus... 

R" = CH20H). The use of sodium borohydride in place of lithium aluminum hydride did not lead to ring closure but to 3-[j8-(A-l,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolyl)ethyl]indole derivatives (53). Reductive cyclization by means of lithium aluminum hydride of the j8-(3-indolyl)ethyl-l-isoquinoline (52) to the pentacyclic tetrahydro-j8-carboline 49 (R = R = R" = H) has been reported. Strong acid alone sufficed to convert 52 into 54, the 0x0 derivative of 49. ... 

In a recent variation of this synthesis of the tetrahydro-j8-carboline system, hexahydro derivatives (65) of the salt 55 were cyclized to fully aromatic j8-carbohne derivatives (66a and 66b) on palladium dehydrogenation, presumably by way of an enamine intermediate. ... 

Anhydro-bases derived from quaternary )S-carbolinium salts are reduced to p /r-A-substituted-l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carboline derivatives on hydrogenation over Adams catalyst in methanol solution made alkaline to ensure the presence of anhydro-base. ... 

A large number of compounds containing an extended 3,4-dihydro-/5-carbolinium system (82) have been converted similarly into the corresponding tetrahydro-j8-carboline derivatives (83a and 83b). In many cases the reaction is stereospecific and one or the other of the epimers 83a and 83b has been isolated as the sole or major product. Sodium and ethanoH tin and hydrochloric acid zinc and... 

Other oxo-j8-carbolines which have been converted into 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carbolines are 2-benzyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1,3-dioxo-j8-carboline (85 R = CH2C6H5), which was reduced to 2-benzyl-1,2,3,4-... 

Dihydro-j8-carboline itself, the parent compound of the group, whose original preparation from A -formyltryptamine was doubtful, has now been describedand characterized. Its 9-methyl and 6-methoxy derivatives have also been prepared. 

Emphasis in recent applications of the method has been placed on the synthesis of tetra- and penta-cyclic structures containing a di-hydro-j8-carboline system or its equivalent. Thus the tetracyclic system 100 was obtained from the amide (99) of tryptamine and hip-puric acid. ... 

Similar oxidative reactions have been studied more thoroughly in the pentacyclic series of tetrahydro-j8-carbolines, and general methods are available. 

Those epimers of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carbolines of general structure 139, in which the hydrogen on carbon-1 of the carboline moiety is axial, are converted into the corresponding 3,4-dihydro- -carbolinium salts (141) by mercuric acetate oxidation. Sodium dichromate... 

The photochemical conversion of the 2-bromo derivative 144, derived from l-o-methylphenyl-l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carboline by treatment with hypobromite, into a dihydro-j8-carboline, regarded as 145, has been reported. ... 

Non-oxidative conversion of a tetrahydro-)8-carboline into a 3,4-dihydro derivative has also been described. Dehydration of 1-hydroxymethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carboline (146) yielded 1-methyl-3,4-dihydro-j8-carboline (135). Harmaline and l-methyl-3,4-dihydro-j8-carboline-3-carboxylic acid were obtained in an analogous manner. ... 

Another approach to the l-oxo-l,2-dihydro-j8-carboline system is that due to King and Stiller. When 2-ethoxy carbonyl-3-formyl-indole is condensed with hippuric acid the azlactone 162 is formed, which, with 10% methanolic potassium hydroxide, gives a mixture of the orthoester 163 and the potassium salt 164. 

Polycyclic derivatives have been prepared by straightforward amide formation. The tetracyclic amide 166 was obtained by reductive cyclization of 3-o-nitrophenylindole-2-carboxylic acid (165).22 When l-(2 -ethoxycarbonylskatyl)isoquinoline (167) was heated the pentacyclic j8-carboline derivative 168 was formed. If,... 

R = OCHg, R = N(CHg)2] on treatment with polyphosphoric acid give the corresponding 2-aroyl-l-oxo-l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carboline (177). In the latter instance the use of acetic anhydride... 

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