Quinine Synthesis

Following Uskokovic s seminal quinine synthesis [40], Jacobsen has very recently reported the first catalytic asymmetric synthesis of quinine and quinidine. The stereospecific construction of the bicyclic framework, introducing the relative and absolute stereochemistry at the Cg- and expositions, was achieved by way of the enantiomerically enriched trans epoxide 87, prepared from olefin 86 by SAD (AD-mix (3) and subsequent one-pot cyclization of the corresponding diol [2b], The key intramolecular SN2 reaction between the Ni- and the Cg-positions was accomplished by removal of the benzyl carbamate with Et2AlCl/thioanisole and subsequent thermal cyclization to give the desired quinudidine skeleton (Scheme 8.22) [41],... 

Scheme 5 Radical addition strategy for quinine synthesis...

Guanidines are useful nucleophiles in the intramolecular ring opening of epoxides <2003TL3075>. The intramolecular addition of an amide anion to an oxirane in a 6-o o-fashion formed 2-ketopiperazine derivatives <20040L4069>. This reaction type was also used in a recent quinine synthesis <2004TL3783>. 

Scheme 9. The Hoffmann-La Roche synthesis of quinine synthesis of intermediate 32.

In the following decades, chemists tried to utilize more and more the knowledge on reactions which had already been gained. A number of landmark syntheses represent the change to modern chemistry, such as the synthesis of the estrogenic steroid equilenin (W. Bachmann, 1939), of pyridoxine (K. Folkers, 1939), and of quinine (R.B. Woodward, W. von E. Doering, 1944) [23]. 

It has long been known that quaternary ammonium salts can exert a curare-like action, and in recent years much attention has been given to the synthesis and pharmacological testing of such products work on this subject up to 1936 has been reviewed by Ing, and more recently a theoretical discussion of the relationship between structure and action in drugs of this type has been provided by Holmes, Jenden and Taylor.Chase, Lehmann and Yonkmann have compared the action of quaternary salts of quinine with that of -erythroidine hydrochloride and of dihydro- -erythroidine hydrobromide. Quinine ethochloride shows marked curariform action of short duration. ... 

Babe s general formula (p. 443) for the cinchona alkaloids was published in 1908 and a partial synthesis of quinine was effected by Babe and Kindler in 1918, but a complete synthesis of this alkaloid did not become available until 1945 when Woodward and Doering described their ingenious process. 

Synthesis of Quinine. This required a parallel series of operations jn which the still unknown substance Aomomeroquinenine (3-vinylpiperi-dine-4-propionic acid) replaced its dihydro-derivative, Aomocincholoipon, for the final condensation with ethyl quininate. The first step was taken by ProStenik and Prelog,who converted cinchonine to cinchqnjcjn ... 

The initial observation that menthone reacts with amyl nitrite in the presence of base to give a good yield of an open-chain oximino ester was not expanded for synthetic purposes until Woodward almost forty years later utilized this reaction for the cleavage of a 7-keto-decahydroisoquinoline in the course of his total synthesis of quinine. 

Woodward achieved his first signal success of a lifetime devoted to the preparation of increasingly complex natural products by total synthesis by the successful preparation of quinine. Despite its elegance, this synthesis did not provide a commercially viable alternative to isolation of the drug from chincona bark. A rather short synthesis for this drug from readily available starting materials has been only recently developed by the group at Hoffmann-LaRoche. (The economics of this synthesis are,... 

How richly this prophecy has come true is read in the scientific literature of organic chemistry. His first major success was the synthesis of quinine, a problem he began worrying as a high school student. This compound was to be typical of the difficult molecules he has successfully... 

Scheme 8.22 Intramolecular Sn2 reaction in the catalytic asymmetric total synthesis of quinine.

Only a few other cobalt complexes of the type covered in this review (and therefore excluding, for example, the cobalt carbonyls) have been reported to act as catalysts for homogeneous hydrogenation. The complex Co(DMG)2 will catalyze the hydrogenation of benzil (PhCOCOPh) to benzoin (PhCHOHCOPh). When this reaction is carried out in the presence of quinine, the product shows optical activity. The degree of optical purity varies with the nature of the solvent and reaches a maximum of 61.5% in benzene. It was concluded that asymmetric synthesis occurred via the formation of an organocobalt complex in which quinine was coordinated in the trans position (133). Both Co(DMG)2 and cobalamin-cobalt(II) in methanol will catalyze the following reductive methylations ... 

The synthesis of quinine is considered the quintessential classic in the art of total synthesis. Figure 4.59 summarizes the starting materials for four routes beginning with the historical Woodward-Doering-Rabe plan to the racemic mixture and including three recent modern... 

Figure 4.59 Synthesis map showing starting materials used for the synthesis of quinine.

Woodward, R.B. Doering, W.E. (1945) The Total Synthesis of Quinine. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 67, 860-874. 

Sulfoxides without amino or carboxyl groups have also been resolved. Compound 3 was separated into enantiomers via salt formation between the phosphonic acid group and quinine . Separation of these diastereomeric salts was achieved by fractional crystallization from acetone. Upon passage through an acidic ion exchange column, each salt was converted to the free acid 3. Finally, the tetra-ammonium salt of each enantiomer of 3 was methylated with methyl iodide to give sulfoxide 4. The levorotatory enantiomer was shown to be completely optically pure by the use of chiral shift reagents and by comparison with a sample prepared by stereospecific synthesis (see Section II.B.l). The dextrorotatory enantiomer was found to be 70% optically pure. 

Mikolajczyk and coworkers have summarized other methods which lead to the desired sulfmate esters These are asymmetric oxidation of sulfenamides, kinetic resolution of racemic sulfmates in transesterification with chiral alcohols, kinetic resolution of racemic sulfinates upon treatment with chiral Grignard reagents, optical resolution via cyclodextrin complexes, and esterification of sulfinyl chlorides with chiral alcohols in the presence of optically active amines. None of these methods is very satisfactory since the esters produced are of low enantiomeric purity. However, the reaction of dialkyl sulfites (33) with t-butylmagnesium chloride in the presence of quinine gave the corresponding methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isopropyl and n-butyl 2,2-dimethylpropane-l-yl sulfinates (34) of 43 to 73% enantiomeric purity in 50 to 84% yield. This made available sulfinate esters for the synthesis of t-butyl sulfoxides (35). 

The next milestone in the development of organic synthesis was the preparation of the first synthetic dye, mauveine (aniline purple) by Perkin in 1856 Perkin, 1856, 1862). This is generally regarded as the first industrial organic synthesis. It is also a remarkable example of serendipity. Perkin s goal was the synthesis of the antimalarial drug quinine by oxidation of N-allyl toluidine (Fig. 2.4). 

Scheme 6.103 Intramolecular SN2 reaction in the total synthesis of quinine.

Another microwave-mediated intramolecular SN2 reaction forms one of the key steps in a recent catalytic asymmetric synthesis of the cinchona alkaloid quinine by Jacobsen and coworkers [209]. The strategy to construct the crucial quinudidine core of the natural product relies on an intramolecular SN2 reaction/epoxide ringopening (Scheme 6.103). After removal of the benzyl carbamate (Cbz) protecting group with diethylaluminum chloride/thioanisole, microwave heating of the acetonitrile solution at 200 °C for 2 min provided a 68% isolated yield of the natural product as the final transformation in a 16-step total synthesis. 

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