Racemic compounds kinetic resolution

Clearly, there is a need for techniques which provide access to enantiomerically pure compounds. There are a number of methods by which this goal can be achieved . One can start from naturally occurring enantiomerically pure compounds (the chiral pool). Alternatively, racemic mixtures can be separated via kinetic resolutions or via conversion into diastereomers which can be separated by crystallisation. Finally, enantiomerically pure compounds can be obtained through asymmetric synthesis. One possibility is the use of chiral auxiliaries derived from the chiral pool. The most elegant metliod, however, is enantioselective catalysis. In this method only a catalytic quantity of enantiomerically pure material suffices to convert achiral starting materials into, ideally, enantiomerically pure products. This approach has found application in a large number of organic... 

Catalytic kinetic resolution can be the method of choice for the preparation of enantioenriched materials, particularly when the racemate is inexpensive and readily available and direct asymmetric routes to the optically active compounds are lacking. However, several other criteria-induding catalyst selectivity, efficiency, and cost, stoichiometric reagent cost, waste generation, volumetric throughput, ease of product isolation, scalability, and the existence of viable alternatives from the chiral pool (or classical resolution)-must be taken into consideration as well... 

This type of procedure is referred to as a kinetic resolution since the enantiomers of the racemic substrate exhibit different rates of reaction with the optically active compound, i.e. the diastereomeric transition states that arise from differences in e.g. non-bonded interactions have different free energies. Horeau and Nouaille (1966) estimate that a rate difference corresponding to A AG of the order of 0 2 cal mol at 25°C could in principle be revealed by this method. 

The phosphotriesterase from Pseudomonas diminuta was shown to catalyze the enantioselective hydrolysis of several racemic phosphates (21), the Sp isomer reacting faster than the Rp compound [65,66]. Further improvements using directed evolution were achieved by first carrying out a restricted alanine-scan [67] (i.e. at predetermined amino acid positions alanine was introduced). Whenever an effect on activity/ enantioselectivity was observed, the position was defined as a hot spot. Subsequently, randomization at several hot spots was performed, which led to the identification of several highly (S)- or (R)-selective mutants [66]. A similar procedure was applied to the generation of mutant phosphotriesterases as catalysts in the kinetic resolution of racemic phosphonates [68]. 

Chiral Recognition. The use of chiral hosts to form diastereomeric inclusion compounds was mentioned above. But in some cases it is possible for a host to form an inclusion compound with one enantiomer of a racemic guest, but not the other. This is caUed chiral recognition. One enantiomer fits into the chiral host cavity, the other does not. More often, both diastereomers are formed, but one forms more rapidly than the other, so that if the guest is removed it is already partially resolved (this is a form of kinetic resolution, see category 6). An example is use of the chiral crown ether (53) partially to resolve the racemic amine salt (54). " When an aqueous solution of 54 was... 

The importance of proper immobilization of enzymes can be shown in the kinetic resolution of racemic a-acetoxyamides. This group of compounds is an important class of chemicals since they can be readily transformed into a-amino acids [17], N-methylated amino acids, and tripeptide mimetics [18], amino alcohols [19], 1,2-diols [20], 1,2-diamines [21], and enantiopure l,4-dihydro-4-phenyl isoquinolinones [22]. 

Of the two former processes shown in Scheme 5.2, the kinetic resolution of race-mates has found a much greater number of applications than the desymmetrization of prochiral or meso compounds. This is due to the fact that racemic substrates are much more common than prochiral ones. However, kinetic resolution suffers from a number of drawbacks, the main being the following ... 

For successful DKR two reactions an in situ racemization (krac) and kinetic resolution [k(R) k(S)] must be carefully chosen. The detailed description of all parameters can be found in the literature [26], but in all cases, the racemization reaction must be much faster than the kinetic resolution. It is also important to note that both reactions must proceed under identical conditions. This methodology is highly attractive because the enantiomeric excess of the product is often higher than in the original kinetic resolution. Moreover, the work-up of the reaction is simpler since in an ideal case only the desired enantiomeric product is present in the reaction mixture. This concept is used for preparation of many important classes of organic compounds like natural and nonnatural a-amino acids, a-substituted nitriles and esters, cyanohydrins, 5-alkyl hydantoins, and thiazoUn-5-ones. 

Catalytic transformation based on combined enzyme and metal catalysis is described as a new class of methodology for the synthesis of enantiopure compounds. This approach is particularly useful for dynamic kinetic resolution in which enzymatic resolution is coupled with metal-catalyzed racemization for the conversion of a racemic substrate to a single enantiomeric product. 

Searching for a method of synthesis of enantiopure lamivudine 1, the compound having a monothioacetal stereogenic centre, Rayner et al. investigated a lipase-catalysed hydrolysis of various racemic a-acetoxysulfides 2. They found out that the reaction was both chemoselective (only the acetate group was hydrolysed with no detectable hydrolysis of the other ester moieties) and stereoselective. As a result of the kinetic resolution, enantiomerically enriched unreacted starting compounds were obtained. However, the hydrolysis products 3 were lost due to decomposition." In this way, the product yields could not exceed 50% (Equation 1). The product 2 (R = CH2CH(OEt)2) was finally transformed into lamivudine 1 and its 4-epimer. ... 

However, the most common and important method of synthesis of chiral non-racemic hydroxy phosphoryl compounds has been the resolution of racemic substrates via a hydrolytic enzyme-promoted acylation of the hydroxy group or hydrolysis of the 0-acyl derivatives, both carried out under kinetic resolution conditions. The first attempts date from the early 1990s and have since been followed by a number of papers describing the use of a variety of enzymes and various types of organophosphorus substrates, differing both by the substituents at phosphorus and by the kind of hydroxy (acetoxy)-containing side chain. 

The hydrolytic kinetic resolution (HKR) of terminal epoxides using Co-salen catalysts provides a convenient route to the synthesis of enantioemiched chiral compounds by selectively converting one enantiomer of the racemic mixture (with a maximum 50% yield and 100% ee) (1-3). The use of water as the nucleophile makes this reaction straightforward to perform at a relatively low cost. The homogeneous Co(III) salen catalyst developed by Jacobsen s group has been shown to provide high... 

Tryptophan (and also tryptophanol) undergoes a stereoselective cyclocondensation with racemic compound 249, in a very interesting process involving a kinetic resolution with epimerization of the tryptophan stereocenter and simultaneous desymmetrization of the two diastereotopic acetate chains <2005CC1327>, affording the enantiomeri-cally pure lactam 250. A subsequent treatment of the latter compound with trifluoroacetic acid led to the indolo[2,3- ]quinolizidine 251 through an intermediate acyliminium cation (Scheme 50) <20050L2817>. 

Hydrogen transfer reactions are reversible, and recently this has been exploited extensively in racemization reactions in combination with kinetic resolutions of racemic alcohols. This resulted in dynamic kinetic resolutions, kinetic resolutions of 100% yield of the desired enantiopure compound [30]. The kinetic resolution is typically performed with an enzyme that converts one of the enantiomers of the racemic substrate and a hydrogen transfer catalyst that racemizes the remaining substrate (see also Scheme 20.31). Some 80 years after the first reports on transfer hydrogenations, these processes are well established in synthesis and are employed in ever-new fields of chemistry. 

In the contemporary production of enantiopure compounds this feature is highly appreciated. Currently, kinetic resolution of racemates is the most important method for the industrial production of enantiomerically pure compounds. This procedure is based on chiral catalysts or enzymes, which catalyze conversion of the enantiomers at different rates. The theoretical yield of this type of reaction is only 50%, because the unwanted enantiomer is discarded. This generates a huge waste stream, and is an undesirable situation from both environmental and economic points of view. Efficient racemization catalysts that enable recycling of the undesired enantiomer are, therefore, of great importance. 

There are two possible approaches for the preparation of optically active products by chemical transformation of optically inactive starting materials kinetic resolution and asymmetric synthesis [44,87], For both types of reactions there is one principle in order to make an optically active compound we need another optically active compound. A kinetic resolution depends on the fact that two enantiomers of a racemate react at different rates with a chiral reagent or catalyst. Accordingly, an asymmetric synthesis involves the creation of an asymmetric center that occurs by chiral discrimination of equivalent groups in an achiral starting material. This can be done either by enan-tioselective (which involves the reaction of a prochiral molecule with a chiral substance) or diastereoselective (which involves the preferential formation of a single diastereomer by the creation of a new asymmetric center in a chiral molecule) synthesis. 

After some early examples of bio-chemo combinations in the 1980s, there was then over a decade of silence , followed by clearly increasing interest from the mid-1990s in the field of dynamic kinetic resolution processes (i.e., chemocata-lyzed racemization combined with enantioselective enzymatic conversion, giving, in principle, 100% yield of an optically pure compound). 

This principle of a dynamic equilibrium between two compounds by one catalyst in combination with a selective conversion of one of those by a second catalyst is of great importance for the so-called 100% e.e.-100% yield synthesis of enantio-merically pure compounds from racemic starting materials. Over ten different examples of such dynamic kinetic resolution on a lab-scale have been reported [4], using the concomitant action of a chemocatalyst and a bio-catalyst (Fig. 13.10). Without such a combination of two catalysts in one reactor, either a maximum yield of only 50% can be obtained or separate recovery and racemization steps are required. 

Falk and Schlogl 42> as late as 1968 established the absolute configuration of compound 13a as (+) —(S)-4-carboxy[2.2]paracyclophane. They did this by kinetic resolution of the racemic carboxylic anhydride with ( —)-a-phenylethylamine this kinetically controlled amidation afforded the dextrorotatory compound (13) in 3.8% optical yield 42C The similar topology of the carboxyl-group environment in 13 and in a-substituted metallocene carboxylic acids (14), configurations con-... 

CPDMO is a new bioreagent for the synthesis of optically pure lactones with excellent enantioselectivity. CPDMO is not only effective in desymmetrization of meso and prochiral compounds (Procedure 2, Section 11.8.2), but excellent in carrying out the kinetic resolution of racemates (Procedure 3, Section 11.8.3). Additional examples of optically pure lactones that can be obtained are summarized in Table 11.4. In the fermenter work (Procedure 4, Section 11.8.4), (R)-2-methyl cyclohexanone was not converted, but evaporated under aeration condition (1 wm). This led to the expected product (5)-7-methyl oxepanone at the end of the experiment. The optically pure lactone could be recovered without sdica-gel chromatography separation. However, the production yield may be improved by using a better condenser. 

Enzymes may be used either directly for chiral synthesis of the desired enantiomer of the amino acid itself or of a derivative from which it can readily be prepared, or for kinetic resolution. Resolution of a racemate may remove the unwanted enantiomer, leaving the intended product untouched, or else the reaction may release the desired enantiomer from a racemic precursor. In either case the apparent disadvantage is that the process on its own can only yield up to 50% of the target compound. However, in a number of processes the enzyme-catalyzed kinetic resolution is combined with a second process that re-racemizes the unwanted enantiomer. This may be chemical or enzymatic, and in the latter case, the combination of two simultaneous enzymatic reactions can produce a smooth dynamic kinetic resolution leading to 100% yield. 

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