Prochiral carboxylic acid

In the special case of the prochiral carboxylic acids (36), dehydrohalogenation with an optically active lithium amide gave an optically active product with enantiomeric excesses as high as 82%. 

In the special case of the prochiral carboxylic acids 36, dehydrohalogenation with an... 

This approach involves formation of salts most commonly between prochiral carboxylic acid-containing photoreactants and optically pure nonabsorbing amines. While the carboxylic acids are achiral the salts are chiral and these salts, which necessarily crystallize in chiral space groups, provide the asymmetric media in which to carry out the reactions. Clearly the opposite approach, namely forming a salt using a reactive achiral amine and a chiral acid, is also valid. 

Pig liver esterase (PLE) has found extensive use for the hydrolytic cleavage of methyl or ethyl esters of prochiral carboxylic acids. 

Prochiral organic acids were hydrogenated on clay-supported Rh-chiral phosphine complexes.205,206 Hectorite-supported chiral Rh(I)-phosphine complexes were used for the asymmetric hydrogenation of a,P-unsaturated carboxylic acids.207 It was found that the interaction between the a-ester group of itaconates and phenyl groups of phosphine can play an important role in the determination of the configuration of products. 

The bis-DIOP complex HRh[(+)-DIOP]2 has been used under mild conditions for catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation of several prochiral olefinic carboxylic acids (273-275). Optical yields for reduction of N-acetamidoacrylic acid (56% ee) and atropic acid (37% ee) are much lower than those obtained using the mono-DIOP catalysts (10, II, 225). The rates in the bis-DIOP systems, however, are much slower, and the hydrogenations are complicated by slow formation of the cationic complex Rh(DIOP)2+ (271, 273, 274) through reaction of the starting hydride with protons from the substrate under H2 the cationic dihydride is maintained [cf. Eq. (25)] ... 

In order to obtain more information on the reaction intermediate, the stereochemical course of the reaction was investigated. The absolute configuration of the product from a-methyl-a-phenylmalonic acid was unambiguously determined to be R, based on the sign of specific rotation. Then, which carboxyl group remains in the propionic acid and which is released as carbon dioxide To solve this problem we have to distinguish between two prochiral carboxyl... 

Nitriles are interesting precursors of both amides and carboxylic acids. In vivo there are two pathways for the bioconversion of nitriles to carboxylic acids (Scheme 6.19). In the first method a nitrilase catalyzes the enantioselechve hydrolysis of a racemic or prochiral nitrile. The second pathway involves a two-enzyme cascade in which an aselective nitrile hydratase (NHase) catalyzes the hydration of the racemic nitrile to the racemic amide followed by an amidase-catalyzed enantioselechve hydrolysis to the carboxylic acid. The amidase is generally, but not always, (S)-selechve, resulting in the formahon of a 1 1 mixture of the (S)-acid... 

Nitrilases catalyze the synthetically important hydrolysis of nitriles with formation of the corresponding carboxylic acids 7-11). Enantioselectivity is relevant in the kinetic resolution of racemic nitriles or desymmetrization of prochiral dinitriles. Both versions have been applied successfully to a number of different substrates using one of the known currently available nitrilases. Recently, scientists at Diversa expanded the collection of nitrilases by metagenome panning 150). Nevertheless, in numerous cases the usual limitations of enzyme catalysis become visible, including poor or only moderate enantioselectivity and limited activity. 

PLE) transforms the meso substrate into chiral compound 5 with >98% te. This en/yme is capable of differendating between the two enantiotopic ester groups on the prochiral carbon atom and hydrolyzing only one of them to a carboxylic acid. Maximum enan-tioselectivity is achieved by carrying out the reaction in 25% aqueous DMSO solution at 35 C. 

In the classical Passerini reaction [11], an isocyanide is condensed with a carbonyl compound and a carboxylic acid to afford a-acyloxyamides 7 (Scheme 1.2). When the carbonyl compound is prochiral, a new stereogenic center is generated. It is generally accepted that the reaction proceeds through intermediate 6, which rearranges to the product. The way this intermediate is formed is more debated. A possibility is a concerted non-ionic mechanism involving transition state 5. Since the simultaneous union of three molecules is not a very likely process, another possibility is a stepwise mechanism, with the intermediacy of a loosely bonded adduct 4 between the carbonyl compound and the carboxylic acid [2], Since all three... 

Attempts to convert prochiral ketenes such an 33 (Scheme 13.15) into enantio-enriched derivatives of a-chiral carboxylic acids (34, Scheme 13.15) are among the earliest examples of asymmetric nucleophilic catalysis in general. 

The boron atom dominates the reactivity of the boracyclic compounds because of its inherent Lewis acidity. Consequently, there have been very few reports on the reactivity of substituents attached to the ring carbon atoms in the five-membered boronated cyclic systems. Singaram and co-workers developed a novel catalyst 31 based on dicarboxylic acid derivative of 1,3,2-dioxaborolane for the asymmetric reduction of prochiral ketones 32. This catalyst reduces a wide variety of ketones enantioselectively in the presence of a co-reductant such as LiBH4. The mechanism involves the coordination of ketone 32 with the chiral boronate 31 and the conjugation of borohydride with carboxylic acid to furnish the chiral borohydride complex 34. Subsequent transfer of hydride from the least hindered face of the ketone yields the corresponding alcohol 35 in high ee (Scheme 3) <20060PD949>. 

Figure 12 The most stable structure computed (RB3LYP/6-31G(d)) for the Li+ complex with menthyl ester of 2-benzoyladamantane-2-carboxylic acid. In the two structures the sites of interaction of Li+ are different. The carbonyl is tilted toward different prochiral hydrogens in the two structures. Note that the interaction energies are considerably different for the two structures. The interaction energies computed at the RHF/3-21G level are given in parentheses.

The preparation of protected (/ )-2-methyl-cysteine by Fukuyama starts with the enantio-selective discrimination of the prochiral ester groups in 6 with pig liver esterase (Scheme 3) [5]. The ester function of the resulting product 7 is selectively reduced (7 16). Cyclization to the )9-lactone gives compound 17. Attack of the thioacetate at the )9-lactone methylene carbon atom provides the (/f)-compound 18. Selective reduction of the carboxylic acid function in 7 gives the (S)-compound 19 in an analogous fashion. 

Asymmetrization of a prochiral dicarboxylic acid diester catalyzed by lipases, where the stereo center of the product is located on the acyl side, becomes a single-step process because the polar carboxylic acid and/or amide formed are not well accepted as substrates by the Upase. One example is the enantioselective hydrolysis or ammonolysis of diethyl 3-hydroxyglutarate, as shown in Scheme 7.4, a reaction which leads to the formation of a precursor for the important chiral side chain of atorvastatin, lipitor [40, 41]. The S-enantiomer was formed with high e.e. (98%), but unfortunately this is the undesired enantiomer for the production of the pharmaceutically important product. Only a-chymotrypsin gave a predominance of the... 

Pig Liver Esterase (PLE). This is the more used car-boxylesterase (carboxylic-ester hydrolase, EC 3.1.1.1, CAS 9016-18-6) which physiologically catalyzes the hydrolysis of carboxylic acid esters to the free acid anion and alcohol. PLE is a serine hydrolase which has been widely used for the preparation of chiral synthons and these applications have been fully reviewed. An active-site model for interpreting and predicting the specificity of the enzyme has been published. In the pioneering studies of the enzyme applications field, PLE was used for the chiral synthesis of mevalonolactone. Prochiral 3-substituted glutaric acid diesters... 

Among the carbon electrophiles, carbonyl compounds [113,114] were first applied in the reaction with lithiated ferrocenylalkyl amines (Sect. 4.S.3.3 and Fig. 4-18). Analogously, carboxylic acids are obtained from CO2 [153]. The reactivity pattern of palladated ferrocenylalkyl amines with carbon electrophiles is somewhat different. Carbon monoxide in alcohols leads to the formation of esters of substituted ferrocenecarboxylic acids [124]. With prochiral alcohols, a moderate asymmetric induction is observed [154]. a, -Unsaturated ketones react with palladated ferrocenylalkyl amines not with addition to the carbonyl group, but with substitution of a hydrogen at the carbon—carbon double bond, allowing the introduction of longer side chains at the ferrocene ring (Fig. 4-27c) [124, 152]. 

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