Permethrinic acid

Essentially all of the early studies were directed towards enantioselective cyclopropanation and Maas has reviewed the literature up to 198 54. The most successful of these early studies were those of Aratani and coworkers"2 174 who developed chiral copper(II) chelates of type 153 from salicylaldehyde and optically active amino alcohols with which to catalyse intermolecular cyclopropanation with diazoesters. Enantioselectivities exceeding 90% ee could be achieved in selected cases (equations 133 and 134) including the synthesis of permethrinic acid 154 and /ram-chrysanthemic acid 155. 

When the carbinol substituents (R) were the bulky 5-ler -butyl-2-(n-octyloxy)phenyl group, optimum enantioselectivities were achieved with the catalytic use of the corresponding Cu(II) complex (2) in both enantiomeric forms. Specific applications of the Aratani catalysts have included the synthesis of chrysanthemic acid esters (Eq. 5.6) and a precursor to permethrinic acid, both potent units of pyrethroid insecticides, and for the commercial preparation of ethyl (S)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropanecarboxylate (Eq. 5.2), which is used for constructing cilastatin. Several other uses of these catalysts and their derivatives for cyclopropanation reactions have been reported albeit, in most cases, with only moderate enantioselectivities [26-29],... 

Czugler, M., Acs, M., and Fogassy, E. A combined DSC, X-ray diffraction and molecular modelling study of chiral discrimination in the purification of enantiomeric mixtures of c/s-permethrinic acid, J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans. 2. 1990, 57-63. 

Enantioselection can be controlled much more effectively with the appropriate chiral copper, rhodium, and cobalt catalyst.The first major breakthrough in this area was achieved by copper complexes with chiral salicylaldimine ligands that were obtained from salicylaldehyde and amino alcohols derived from a-amino acids (Aratani catalysts ). With bulky diazo esters, both the diastereoselectivity (transicis ratio) and the enantioselectivity can be increased. These facts have been used, inter alia, for the diastereo- and enantioselective synthesis of chrysan-themic and permethrinic acids which are components of pyrethroid insecticides (Table 10). 0-Trimethylsilyl enols can also be cyclopropanated enantioselectively with alkyl diazoacetates in the presence of Aratani catalysts. In detailed studies,the influence of various parameters, such as metal ligands in the catalyst, catalyst concentration, solvent, and alkene structure, on the enantioselectivity has been recorded. Enantiomeric excesses of up to 88% were obtained with catalyst 7 (R = Bz = 2-MeOCgH4). 

Derivatives of chrysanthemic acid such as (H ,3f )-permethrinic acid 143 are in demand for the manufacture of highly specific insecticides that do not persist in the environment. Mixtures of the esters 142 are easy to make and contain various proportions of the cis and trans diastereoisomers. Pig liver esterase accepts only the trans esters as substrates so complete hydrolysis gives the unchanged cis esters and hydrolysed but poorly resolved trans acids. At 50% conversion, kinetic resolution of the trans esters occurs.36... 

At 50% conversion, the product contains three esters, the two cis- 142s and the (I.V,3.V)-/ran.Y ester together with a little (15,35) -trans acid and all of the (I / ,3/ )-permethrinic acid 143. The ratio of these last two is 10 90 but one recrystallisation from petrol gives (l/ ,3/ )-permethrinic acid 143 in 98% ee. This approach works for several different cyclopropane-based carboxylic acids in much the same way. 

In this way, esters of chrysanthemic acid (2) [15,16,18] and permethrinic acid [17,18], which are important precursors for the synthesis of pyrethroid insecticides, can be prepared in >90% ee. Although enantioselective cyclopropanation cannot compete with conventional industrial syntheses of optically active pyrethroids, a technical process for the cyclopropanation of 2-methylpropene was successfully implemented at Sumitomo [18]. The product, ethyl (-l-)-2,2-dimeth-ylcyclopropanecarboxylate, serves as a starting material for the production of cilastatin, a dehydropeptidase inhibitor used as a drug to suppress the degradation of the P-lactam antibiotic iminipenem. 

Permethrinic acid,3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropanecarboxyl-ic acid, is another kind of cyclopropanecarboxylic acid producing insecticides of higher performance and stability [5]. The structure of permethrin, a totally synthetic pyrethroid, is shown in Fig. 2. The most effective isomer of permethrinic acid is shown to be the d-cis isomer rather than the d-trans isomer [6]. 

Permethrinic acid can be prepared in a similar manner in high enantiomeric purity24. 

Permethrinic acid Table B33, Appendix B, gives the four isomers arising from the hydrolysis of the four isomers of permethrin and the eight isomers of cypermethrin and cyfluthrin. 

Permethrinic acid has two enantiomer pairs and four isomers (2" = 4) (Table B33, Appendix B). The acid leaving group for permethrin, cypermethrin, and cyfluthrin is permethrinic acid. The structure of this acid is given in Table 3. Angerer and Ritter (1997) separated the methyl esters of cis- and trans-permethrinic acid on a polysiloxane capillary column by GC (Table C18, Appendix C). The carboxylic acids of several of these pyrethroids were also listed as trans- or cw-3-(2, 2-dichlorovinyl)-2, 2-dimethyl cyclopropane carboxylic acid. The acids may be separated on a CHIREX phase 3005 column (Phenomenex, 2320 W 205th Street, Torrance, CA 90501) by HPLC. 

Decamethrinic acid is the acid leaving group of deltamethrin and exists in four isomeric forms as shown in Table B35, Appendix B. The acid possesses two bromines as shown in Table 3. The cis and trans methyl esters were separated from the esters of permethrinic acid by Angerer and Ritter (1997) by GC chromatography on a siloxane column (Table C20, Appendix C). 

Ross et al. (2006) studied the hydrolytic metabolism of Type 1 pyrethroids (bioresmethrin, IRS fraws-permethrin, and IRS c/s-permethrin) and several Type II pyrethroids (alpha-cypermethrin and deltamethrin) by pure human CEs (hCE-1 and hCE-2), a rabbit CE (rCE), and two rat CEs (Hydrolases A and B). Hydrolysis rates were based on the formation of 3-phenoxybenzyl alcohol (PBAlc) (CAS no. 13826-36-2) for the cis and trans isomers of permethrin. For bioresmethrin, hydrolysis was based on the production of the trans-chrysanthemic acid (CPCA) (CAS no. 10453-89-1). For alpha-cypermethrin and deltamethrin, hydrolysis was based on the formation of c/s-permethrinic acid (DCCA) (CAS no. 57112-16-0) and 3-phenoxybenzyl aldehyde (PBAld CAS no. 39515-51-0), respectively. Human CE-1 and hCE-2 hydrolyzed trans-permethrin 8- and 28-fold more efficiently (based on kcat/Km values) than did c/s-permethrin, respectively. The kinetic parameters (Fmax> for the hydrolysis of trans- and c/s-permethrin, bioresmethrin and alpha-cypermethrin by rat, mouse, and human hepatic microsomes are given in Table 7. The trans- isomer of permethrin is more readily hydrolyzed by rat, mouse and human hepatic microsomal carboxylesterase than c/s-permethrin (13.4, 85.5 and 56.0 times, respectively). However, the lower for hydrolysis of cis-permethrin in human microsomes suggests that there are both stereoisomer and species-specific differences in metabolism kinetics. 

See Table 3 (3.3) for generic structure and technical name of permethrinic acid ... 

Separation of permethrinic acid by HPLC, chiral column (pmnethrin, cypermethrin. 

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