Pyrazines reduction

The natural moisture of the cocoa bean combined with the heat of roasting cause many chemical reactions other than flavor changes. Some of these reactions remove unpleasant volatile acids and astringent compounds, partially break down sugars, modify tannins and other nonvolatile compounds with a reduction in bitterness, and convert proteins to amino acids that react with sugars to form flavor compounds, particularly pyrazines (4). To date, over 300 different compounds, many of them formed during roasting, have been identified in the chocolate flavor (5). 

Most pteridines are degraded to pyrazines and when they do yield pyrimidines, these may well be the ones from which they were made. However, some useful preparations of pyrimidines from pteridines are known. Thus, reduction of pteridin-7(8//)-one (732) and subsequent hydrolysis yields N-(4-aminopyrimidin-5-yl)glycine (733) (52JCS1620) and hydrolysis of 5,8-dimethylpteridine-6,7(5Ff,8Ff)-dione (734) gives dimethyl-... 

In those reactions where the fV-oxide group assists electrophilic or nucleophilic substitution reactions, and is not lost during the reaction, it is readily removed by a variety of reductive procedures and thus facilitates the synthesis of substituted derivatives of pyrazine, quinoxaline and phenazine. 

In a series of detailed studies, Armand and coworkers have examined the electrochemical reduction of pyrazines (72CR(C)(275)279). The first step results in the formation of 1,4-dihydropyrazines (85), but the reaction is not electrochemically reproducible. The 1,4-dihydropyrazine is pH sensitive and isomerizes at a pH dependent rate to the 1,2-dihydro compound (83). The 1,2-dihydropyrazine then appears to undergo further reduction to 1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrazine (88) which is again not electrochemically reproducible. Compound (88) then appears to undergo isomerization to another tetrahydro derivative, presumably (8, prior to complete reduction to piperazine (89). These results have been confirmed (72JA7295). 

The final reduction product of pyrazine, piperazine (89), is a stable compound which behaves as a typical diamine. It has found extensive use in medicinal chemistry as a linking agent and as a medicine in its own right for the treatment of helminths both in human and veterinary medicine. 

The fusion of a benzene ring to pyrazine results in a considerable increase in the resistance to reduction and it is usually difficult to reduce quinoxalines beyond the tetrahydroquinoxa-line state (91). Two possible dihydroquinoxalines, viz. the 1,2- (92) and the 1,4- (93), are known, and 1,4-dihydroquinoxaline appears to be appreciably more stable than 1,4-dihydropyrazine (63JOC2488). Electrochemical reduction appears to follow a course anzdogous to the reduction of pyrazine, giving the 1,4-dihydro derivative which isomerizes to the 1,2- or 3,4-dihydroquinoxaline before subsequent reduction to 1,2,3,4-tetra-hydroquinoxaline (91). Quinoxaline itself is reduced directly to (91) with LiAlH4 and direct synthesis of (91) is also possible. Tetrahydroquinoxalines in which the benzenoid ring is reduced are well known but these are usually prepared from cyclohexane derivatives (Scheme 30). 

A number of reductive procedures have found general applicability. a-Azidoketones may be reduced catalytically to the dihydropyrazines (80OPP265) and a direct conversion of a-azidoketones to pyrazines by treatment with triphenylphosphine in benzene (Scheme 55) has been reported to proceed in moderate to good yields (69LA(727)23l). Similarly, a-nitroketones may be reduced to the a-aminoketones which dimerize spontaneously (69USP3453279). The products from this reaction are pyrazines and piperazines and an intermolecular redox reaction between the initially formed dihydropyrazines may explain their formation. Normally, if the reaction is carried out in aqueous acetic acid the pyrazine predominates, but in less polar solvents over-reduction results in extensive piperazine formation. 

Other methods of generating a-aminoketones in situ are common, if somewhat less general than the methods already described. 2-Nitrovinylpyrrolidine, which is readily available, yields 2,3-bis(3-aminopropyl)pyrazine on reduction and this almost certainly involves ring opening of the intermediate enamine to an a-aminoketone which then dimerizes under the reaction conditions (Scheme 59) (78TL2217). Nitroethylene derivatives have also served as a-aminoketone precursors via ammonolysis of the derived epoxides at elevated temperatures (Scheme 60) (76S53). Condensation of 1,1-disubstituted hydrazine derivatives with a-nitro-/3-ethoxyethylene derivatives has been used in the synthesis of l,4-dialkylamino-l,4-dihydropyrazines (Scheme 61) (77S136). 

Ring reductions in the pyridopyrazine series have been achieved with a wide variety of agents, and may lead to di- or tetra-hydro derivatives, usually in the pyrazine ring. 

Nitro groups have been reduced to amino groups, whilst amino groups in the 3- and 6-positions of pyrido[2,3-f ]pyrazines and in the 5-position of the [3,4-f ] isomers have been hydrolyzed to the corresponding hydroxy derivatives with alkali. Protected amino groups have been liberated by hydrolysis or reduction in deazapteridine syntheses. 

In a series of reactions with potassium amide in liquid ammonia, 6-chloropyrido[2,3-f)]pyrazine gave reduction and ring contraction (Section 2.15.13.3), the 6-bromo analogue underwent only reduction, whilst the 6-fluoro derivative gave only the 6-amino substitution product (79JHC305). 

Apart from the nuclear bromination observed (Section 2.15.13.1) in the attempted radical bromination of a side-chain methyl group leading to (396), which may or may not have involved radical intermediates, the only other reaction of interest in this section is a light-induced reduction of certain hydroxypyrido[3,4-f)]pyrazines or their 0x0 tautomers analogous to that well-known in the pteridine field (63JCS5156). Related one-electron reduction products of laser photolysis experiments with 1 -deazaflavins have been described (79MI21502). 

Pyrazine, 2,5-dichloro-3,6-difluoro-synthesis, 3, 190-191 Pyrazine, dihydro-, 3, 177 Pyrazine, 1,2-dihydro-oxidation, 3, 178 reduction, 3, 177 Pyrazine, 1,4-dihydro-antiaromaticity, 3, 177-178 synthesis, 3, 177 Pyrazine, 2,3-dihydro-oxidation, 3, 178 Pyrazine, 2,5-dihydro-synthesis, 3, 178 Pyrazine, 3,6-dihydro-synthesis, 3, 184 Pyrazine, 2,5-dihydroxy-oxidation, 3, 175 Pyrazine, 2,3-dimethyl-1,4-dioxide... 

Armand and coworkers have shown that, while 1,4-dihydropyrazines are the initial products of the electrochemical reduction of pyrazines, they could not be isolated and readily isomerize in solution into 1,2- or 1,6-dihydropyrazines depending on the substitution pattern in the heterocyclic ring (74CJC3971 84MI1). The rate of the isomerization depends on the type of pyrazine as well as the pH and the nature and amount of the cosolvent. 

Racemic or optically active perhydropyrido[l,2-a]pyrazines were obtained by reduction of 9a5-perhydropyrido[l,2-u]pyrazin-4-one with LAH in Et20 at room temperature (99H(51)2065) and by reduction of perhydropyr-ido[l,2-u]pyrazine-l,4-diones with LAH in boiling THF (97USP5703072, 00JAP(K)00/86659). Treatment of (9uS)-2-(fcrf-butoxycarbonyl)perhydro-pyrido[l,2-u]pyrazin-4-one with LAH in Lt20 afforded (9uS)-2-fcrf-butox-ycarbonyl-l,6,7,8,9,9a-hexahydro-2//-pyrido[l,2-a]pyrazine (99H(51)2065). 

Reduction of a 7-(2-oxoethyl) derivative with NaBH4 in EtOH at room temperature gave 7-(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-(2-pyrimidinyl)perhydropyrido[l, 2-u]pyrazine (99MIP6). Reduction of 7-formyl-8-[(4-cyanophenyl)methoxy]-1,3,4,6,11,1 lu-hexahydro-2//-pyrazino[l,2-A]isoquinoline-l,4-dione with NaBH4 yielded a 7-hydroxymethyl derivative (98MIP7). 

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