Racemic mixture resolution methods

For diene ligands which are prochiral, complexation results in the fonnation of a racemic mixture. Resolution of this racemic mixture has been accomplished via either classical methods , chromatographic separation on chiral stationary pliascs - or kinetic resolution . For certain acyclic or cyclic dienes possessing a pendent chiral center(s)... 

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... 

The 9 — 15 fragment was prepared by a similar route. Once again Sharpless kinetic resolution method was applied, but in the opposite sense, i.e., at 29% conversion a mixture of the racemic olefin educt with the virtually pure epoxide stereoisomer was obtained. On acid-catalysed epoxide opening and lactonization the stereocentre C-12 was inverted, and the pure dihydroxy lactone was isolated. This was methylated, protected as the acetonide, reduced to the lactol, protected by Wittig olefination and silylation, and finally ozonolysed to give the desired aldehyde. 

In many cases only the racemic mixtures of a-amino acids can be obtained through chemical synthesis. Therefore, optical resolution (42) is indispensable to get the optically active L- or D-forms in the production of expensive or uncommon amino acids. The optical resolution of amino acids can be done in two general ways physical or chemical methods which apply the stereospecific properties of amino acids, and biological or enzymatic methods which are based on the characteristic behavior of amino acids in living cells in the presence of enzymes. 

Crystallization Method. Such methods as mechanical separation, preferential crystallisation, and substitution crystallisation procedures are included in this category. The preferential crystallisation method is the most popular. The general procedure is to inoculate a saturated solution of the racemic mixture with a seed of the desired enantiomer. Resolutions by this method have been reported for histidine (43), glutamic acid (44), DOPA (45), threonine (46), A/-acetyl phenylalanine (47), and others. In the case of glutamic acid, the method had been used for industrial manufacture (48). 

Because the starting materials were optically active, the products were all pure enantiomers. Later, the synthetic scheme shown in Figure 5 was developed (22,45). Resolution of the racemic mixture was accompHshed at the penultimate stage and the optically active D-threo-amine (7) was converted to florfenicol (2). This synthetic process also resulted in the synthesis of thiamphenicol shown in Figure 6 using 1,1,2,3,3,3-hexafluoropropyl diethylamine (FPA) (46). More recently an improved method of synthesis of florfenicol has been developed (17). 

Four general methods have been used for obtaining chiral ligands resolution of a racemic mixture, use of a chiral naturally occurring product 33), and asymmetric homogeneous or heterogeneous hydrogenation. 

The most common method of resolution uses an acid-base reaction between a racemic mixture of chiral carboxylic acids (RC02H) and an amine base (RNH2) to yield an ammonium salt. 

To understand how this method of resolution works, let s see what happens when a racemic mixture of chiral acids, such as (+)- and (-)-lactic acids, reacts with an achiral amine base, such as methylamine, CH3NH2. Stereochemically, the situation is analogous to what happens when left and right hands (chiral) pick up a ball (achiral). Both left and right hands pick up the ball equally well, and the products—ball in right hand versus ball in left hand—are mirror images. In the same way, both ( H- and (-)-lactic acid react with methylamine equally... 

Racemic mixtures of sulfoxides have often been separated completely or partially into the enantiomers. Various resolution techniques have been used, but the most important method has been via diastereomeric salt formation. Recently, resolution via complex formation between sulfoxides and homochiral compounds has been demonstrated and will likely prove of increasing importance as a method of separating enantiomers. Preparative liquid chromatography on chiral columns may also prove increasingly important it already is very useful on an analytical scale for the determination of enantiomeric purity. 

Conduritols and inositols are cyclic polyalcohols with significant biological activity. The presence of four stereogenic centers in the stmcture of conduritols allows the existence of 10 stereoisomers. Enzymatic methods have been reported for the resolution of racemic mixtures or the desymmetrization of meso-conduritols. For example, Mucor miehei lipase (MML) showed enantiomeric discrimination between all-(R) and all-(S) stereoisomers ofconduritol E tetraacetate (Figure 6.52). Alcoholysis resulted in the removal of the four acetyl groups ofthe all-(R) enantiomer whereas the all-(S) enantiomer was recovered [141]. 

Deracemization. In this type of process, one enantiomer is converted to the other, so that a racemic mixture is converted to a pure enantiomer, or to a mixture enriched in one enantiomer. This is not quite the same as the methods of resolution previously mentioned, though an outside optically active substance is required. 

Numerous endogenous substances and commercially available pharmaceuticals are racemic mixtures. Therefore, it is an important problem of clinical chemistry to develop methods for resolution of enantiomers and for establishing enantiomeric purity, because these substances exhibit different biological and physiological... 

Our approach for chiral resolution is quite systematic. Instead of randomly screening different chiral acids with racemic 7, optically pure N-pMB 19 was prepared from 2, provided to us from Medicinal Chemistry. With 19, several salts with both enantiomers of chiral acids were prepared for evaluation of their crystallinity and solubility in various solvent systems. This is a more systematic way to discover an efficient classical resolution. First, a (+)-camphorsulfonic acid salt of 19 crystallized from EtOAc. One month later, a diastereomeric (-)-camphorsulfonic acid salt of 19 also crystallized. After several investigations on the two diastereomeric crystalline salts, it was determined that racemic 7 could be resolved nicely with (+)-camphorsulfonic acid from n-BuOAc kinetically. In practice, by heating racemic 7 with 1.3equiv (+)-camphorsulfonic acid in n-BuOAc under reflux for 30 min then slowly cooling to room temperature, a cmde diastereomeric mixture of the salt (59% ee) was obtained as a first crop. The first crop was recrystallized from n-BuOAc providing 95% ee salt 20 in 43% isolated yield. (The optical purity was further improved to -100% ee by additional recrystallization from n-BuOAc and the overall crystallization yield was 41%). This chiral resolution method was more efficient and economical than the original bis-camphanyl amide method. 

The methods which have been used to determine the configurational stability of organotin compounds and those which have successfully been applied to synthesize such optically active molecules are reviewed, including the chromatographic resolution of racemic mixtures. 

A fourth method is a chromatographic resolution of a racemic mixture of organotin compounds for instance on a chiral matrix such as microcrystalline cellulose triacetate. 

In carrying out kinetic resolution, these in the standard approach are limited to 50% yield regarding the racemate. However, different approaches were developed [28] to overcome this limitation. The classical standard solution is to reracemize the unconverted enantiomer. A more advanced solution is the establishment of a dynamic kinetic resolution that has considerably expanded the synthetic scope of chemical processes. Here, the unconverted enantiomer is, in contrast to the latter method, racemized in situ. A great number of novel enzymatic methods have been developed [29]. Within this chapter, process solutions for enzymatic resolutions of racemic mixtures will be highlighted. 

Resolution of a racemic mixture is still a valuable method involving fractional crystallization [113], chiral stationary phase column chromatography [114] and kinetic resolutions. Katsuki and co-workers demonstrated the kinetic resolution of racemic allenes by way of enantiomer-differentiating catalytic oxidation (Scheme 4.73) [115]. Treatment of racemic allenes 283 with 1 equiv. of PhIO and 2 mol% of a chiral (sale-n)manganese(III) complex 284 in the presence of 4-phenylpyridine N-oxide resulted... 

The optical activity of biologically-active chemicals is important to their activity and toxicology. Pure enantiomers, or optical isomers, of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals can in many cases be made by enantiospecific synthesis. An alternative method is to use a less complicated synthesis followed by chromatographic resolution of the racemic mixture into its enantiomers. 

Like other methods of asymmetric synthesis, the solid-state ionic chiral auxiliary procedure has an advantage over Pasteur resolution in terms of chemical yield. The maximum amount of either enantiomer that can be obtained by resolution of a racemic mixture is 50%, and in practice the yield is often considerably less [47]. In contrast, the ionic chiral auxiliary approach affords a single enantiomer of the product, often in chemical and optical yields of well over 90%. Furthermore, either enantiomer can be obtained as desired by simply using one optical antipode or the other of the ionic chiral auxiliary. 

The resolution of ( ) amino acids isn t really a synthetic method, but it s certainly useful in the production of a particular amino acid from a racemic mixture. In the resolution of ( ) amino acids, an enzyme (a biological catalyst) interacts with only one enantiomer. (Why, you ask Because enzymes are stereoselective.) The enzyme leaves one enantiomer unchanged and modifies the other into a different compound, which makes it possible to separate the enantiomer from the other compound by a number of techniques. After the enantiomer has been separated, all that s left is to reverse the process induced by the enzyme. 

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