Saturated 5 -oxazolones

The saturated 2,2 -bis-oxazolones (10) are conveniently prepared [Eq. (7)] in two-steps via iV, iV -diacylbis-(a-amino acids), which cyclize in hot acetic anhydride. If R is aliphatic, alkali hydroxides... 

In contrast to the saturated azlactones, the Friedel-Crafts reaction of 2-substituted-4-arylidene-5-oxazolones is quite complex and may follow several different courses, often concurrently, depending on both reaction conditions and structural variations in the arylidene ring. This behavior is readily interpreted in terms of the a,)S-unsaturated carbonyl moiety and the cross-conjugated system containing nitrogen, both of which provide potential reaction sites in addition to the lactone carbonyl group. The reaction has been investigated " ... 

In contrast to these ring-opening reactions, it was observed by Horner and Schwahn that 4-arylidene-(isopropylidene and cyclo-hexylidene)-oxazolones react with alkyl Grignard reagents by conjugate addition to give saturated azlactones 29a as the only products [Eq. (18)]. 

Saturated 2,2 -bis-5-oxazolones (10) react with diamines under mild conditions to form polyamides (34) of high molecular weight in quantitative yield [Eq. (21)]. These polymers are composed of dicarboxylic acid, a-amino acid, and diamine units in a regular arrangement of both head-to-tail and tail-to-tail amide groups. They represent a cross between conventional polyamides and a-amino acid homopolymers. A feature of this polymerization is that no small molecules such as H2O, NHg, or CO2 are lost during reaction. 

The preparation of the less stable isomer (53b) of the oxazolone 53a involves a rather tedious procedure. It has been reported that 53a is rapidly isomerized to 53b in 48% hydrobromic acid saturated with gaseous HBr. In this way four azlactones have been converted into their isomers.It has been established, moreover, that the isomerization is radical-initiated and does not involve a carbonium ion intermediate. The isomerization can be reversed by pyridine. ... 

Conjugate addition of strong nucleophiles to the >C=N—C=C< moiety, followed by ring opening of the resulting saturated 5 4H)-oxazolone. Thus, 57 reacts with simple or peptidic amino acid esters [Eq. (31)]. Similarly, 62 gives 63 in methanolic 7i-propylamine, and... 

The anions of CDs may also function as simple basic catalysts towards acidic substrates included in their cavities. Such was observed by Daffe and Fastrez (1983) who studied the deprotonation and hydrolysis of oxazolones in basic media containing CDs. Also, in a paper dealing mainly with catalysis by amylose, it was noted that CDs catalyse the deprotonation of long chain /3-keto esters in basic aqueous DMSO (Cheng et al., 1985) no saturation kinetics were found for CDs, indicating weak substrate binding under the conditions used. 

The 5-oxazolones or oxazolin-5-ones are very interesting heterocyclic compounds that have been used as intermediates in the synthesis of a variety of organic molecules. Two structural classes are possible, the 5(27T)-oxazolones (or 3-oxazo-lin-5-ones) and 5(47T)-oxazolones (or 2-oxazolin-5-ones). These structures differ only in the position of the double bond. Apart from the presence of the heteroatoms (N and O), the carbonyl group and the double bond, the 2- or 4-position, respectively, can be saturated or unsaturated. The isomeric 5-oxazolones are... 

A samrated 5(2//)-oxazolone, also known as a 3-oxazolin-5-one or a pseudox-azolone, can be considered as the tautomer of a saturated 5(4//)-oxazolone (or 2-oxazohn-5-one) by a 1,3-prototropic shift (Scheme 7.1). 

In fact, the first saturated pseudoxazolone reported, 4-methyl-2-(trifluoro-methyl)-5(2//)-oxazolone, was incorrectly assigned as the tautomeric 5(4//)-oxazolone and only later did nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) smdies establish the correct structure. This compound was synthesized from alanine and trifluoro-acetic anhydride (TFFA). This methodology constitutes, under standard conditions, the most general procedure for the synthesis of 5(2//)-oxazolones. 

Saturated 5(4//)-oxazolones are easily obtained from //-acylamino acids in the presence of a cyclization agent and have been used extensively in coupling reactions as synthetic equivalents of a-amino acids in the synthesis of peptides. In this context, tautomeric equilibrium can be a significant problem due to the racemization associated with the isomerization. For example, trifluoroacetylation of tryptophan in ether affords the 5(4//)-oxazolone 5 without racemization. However, upon dissolution in acetonitrile, 5 completely racemizes. Further, upon heating, an aqueous dioxane solution of 5 cleanly isomerizes to the isomeric 5(2//)-oxazolone 6 (Scheme 7.2). 

It was shown previously that saturated 5(4//)-oxazolones or 2-oxazolm-5-ones with only one substituent at C-4 can be considered as the tautomeric form of saturated 5(2//)-oxazolones or 3-oxazolin-5-ones. These compounds can also be considered as amino acid derivatives and, indeed, cyclization procedures are the most commonly used to prepare these compounds. The cyclization reaction employs a variety of cyclodehydrating agents and the general method is shown in Scheme 7.23, with an A-acyl-a-amino acid being the most typical starting material used. In this way, 5(4//)-oxazolones derived from most natural amino acids 99 (R3 = H) have been obtained by heating the corresponding A-acyl derivatives in the presence of acetic anhydride. 

Cyclization of A-acyl-oc-amino acids under acidic reaction conditions is sometimes problematic due to the difficulty in separation of the desired oxazolone from by-products while avoiding decomposition of the reactive oxazolone. This finding is particularly true in the case of 2-phenyl-5(47i)-oxazolone, an interesting compound that is a very useful intermediate to prepare a variety of novel products. The use of carbodiimides as dehydrating agents has been described as a means to improve the results. In particular, treatment of an A-acyl-a-amino acid with A-cyclohexyl-A -2-(A-methylmorpholinio)ethylcarbodiimide p-toluensulfo-nate (Scheme 7.25) is especially useful as a general synthesis of the desired saturated 5(47i)-oxazolones 101 in excellent yields.This same carbodiimide was used to study the kinetics of the formation of saturated 5(47i)-oxazolones from N-protected dipeptides... 

The use of mixed anhydrides derived from Al-acyl-a-amino acids has become an interesting strategy for synthesis of saturated 5(4//)-oxazolones 101 (Scheme 7.26). For example, reaction of Al-acyl-a-amino acids with methyl chloroformate in the presence of Al-methylmorpholine affords racemic 5(47/)-oxazolones. 

In the cases where optically active substrates were used as starting materials, chiral, saturated 5(47/)-oxazolones were obtained with good enantiomeric excesses (ee). Oxazolones derived from Al-formyl-a-amino acids are better prepared using isopropenyl chloroformate, rather than methyl chloroformate, in the presence of N-methylmorphohne. ... 

Nitrones such as 102 gave 2-aryl-4-substituted-5(4//)-oxazolones 103 in the presence of acetic anhydride and triethylamine (Scheme 7.28). Selected examples of saturated-5(477)-oxazolones prepared via cyclization of amino acids are shown in Table 7.15 (Fig. 7.17). 

TABLE 7.15. SYNTHESIS OE SATURATED 5(4//)-OXAZOLONES VIA CYCLIZATION OE AMINO ACID DERIVATIVES... 

It is known that 5-acyloxyoxazoles 132 rearrange to 4-acyl-5(4/l/)-oxazolones 133 in the presence of 4-(dimethylamino)pyridme or 4-(pyrrohdino)pyridine. Recently, an asymmetric variant of this nucleophUe-catalyzed rearrangement that employs a chiral derivative of 4-(pyrrolidino)pyridine has been described. This procedure allows the construction of quaternary stereocenters with high levels of enantioselectivity (Scheme 7.38). Representative examples of saturated 5(4//)-oxazolones prepared via sigmatropic rearrangements are shown in Table 7.16 (Fig. 7.18). 

TABLE 7.16. SYNTHESIS OF SATURATED 5(4H)-OXAZOLONES VIA SIGMATROPIC REARRANGEMENT OF 5-ALKOXYOXAZOLES... 

Saturated 2-vinyl-5(47Z)-oxazolones have been widely used as intermediates for the synthesis of polymeric compounds that will be described in Section 7.3.2.9. Apart from these polymerization reactions, the Diels-Alder reactions of 4-sub-stituted-2-vinyl-5(47/)-oxazolones 134 with cyclopentadiene are reported to give norbomenyl oxazolones 135 that are useful to prepare norbornenyl functionalized resins by azlactone ring-opening addition reactions (Scheme 7.39). 

Alkylation. Saturated 5(47/)-oxazolones are readily available compounds that can be easily obtained from a wide variety of natural amino acid derivatives. These heterocyclic compounds can be considered as nucleophilic synthons of a-amino acids and their most exploited reactivity, apart from oxazolone ring opening, is the reaction at C-4 with a variety of electrophiles. 

Alkylation of saturated 5(4//)-oxazolones at C-4 is a well-known reaction that can be achieved under a wide variety of conditions. Numerous articles have described this reaction as a means to prepare 4,4-dialkyl-5(477)-oxazolones 147 that are valuable intermediates to prepare ot,ot-disubstituted a-amino acids. For instance,2-phenyl-5(4//)-oxazolone 146 readily obtained from hippuric acid and A,A -dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC), is alkylated at C-4 with allyl, benzyl, or phenacyl halides if the reaction is conducted in dipolar aprotic solvents in the presence of weak bases. Hydrolysis of the resulting 5(477)-oxazolones leads to a,a-dialkylglycines 148 (Scheme 7.43). 

TABLE 7.19. SYNTHESIS OF SATURATED 2,4,4-TRISUBSTITUTED 5(47T)-OXAZOLONES VIA ARYLATION OF SATURATED 5(47/)-OXAZOLONES AT C-4... 

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