Strychnine reaction

Perbenzoic acid converts strychnine and dihydrostrychnine into the corresponding iV -oxides, with no attack on the C-21 to C-22 double bond at all (137). On the other hand, when the Nb is nonbasic, as in 18-oxo-strychnine, reaction occurs to give the C-21 to C-22 epoxide (CLXXVIII) (127). It is interesting to note that this epoxide is so sterically hindered to nucleophilic attack, that prolonged boiling with dilute sulfuric acid does not affect it. Methoxymethyldihydroneostrychnine (XXVI) is another molecule in which Nb is, if not nonbasic, at least very weakly basic in this case, too, perbenzoic acid cleaves the double bond to give methoxymethylchanodihydrostrychnone (XXVII) (34). 

In the post-World War II years, synthesis attained a different level of sophistication partly as a result of the confluence of five stimuli (1) the formulation of detailed electronic mechanisms for the fundamental organic reactions, (2) the introduction of conformational analysis of organic structures and transition states based on stereochemical principles, (3) the development of spectroscopic and other physical methods for structural analysis, (4) the use of chromatographic methods of analysis and separation, and (5) the discovery and application of new selective chemical reagents. As a result, the period 1945 to 1960 encompassed the synthesis of such complex molecules as vitamin A (O. Isler, 1949), cortisone (R. Woodward, R. Robinson, 1951), strychnine (R. Woodward, 1954), cedrol (G. Stork, 1955), morphine (M. Gates, 1956), reserpine (R. Woodward, 1956), penicillin V (J. Sheehan, 1957), colchicine (A. Eschenmoser, 1959), and chlorophyll (R. Woodward, 1960) (page 5). ... 

The quaternary fraction of pot curare, after the removal of some neoprotocuridine, was separated into a portion salted out by sodium bicarbonate, and a portion not so precipitated. The latter was fractionated on a plan described in the original, the most active product obtained being an amorphous iodide with a paralysing dose of 1- 5 mg. per kilo frog. This iodide was phenolic, gave the Millon reaction, but no strychnine-like reaction with bichromate and sulphuric acid. No crystalline product could be isolated, but on complete methylation certain of the fractions yielded crystalline methiodides as follows —... 

Tetrahydrostrychnine, CgjHggOgNg. HgO. This substance, also formed by the electrolytic reduction of strychnine, crystallises from alcohol in prisms, m.p. 202°, gives colour reactions of the strychnidine type, and yields both neutral and acid salts the hydrochloride, B. HCl, occurs in small needles readily soluble in water and the dihydriodide, B. 2HI. 2HjO, in pyramidal crystals. The base yields an amorphous nitrosoamine, the hydrochloride of which crystallises from warm water in lustrous, yellowish prisms. It also furnishes a crystalline monoacetyl derivative, and on heating with hydrochloric acid or phosphorus oxychloride is dehydrated to strychnidine. 

Other investigations of interest are the studies of the isomeric dihydroderivatives of brucine and strychnine and their reactions, carried out by Leuchs and his collaborators, investigation of the red o-quinone (isolated as the perchlorate, CjiHjoO Ng. HCIO4) formed in the well-known test for brucine with nitric acid, and the examination of the transformation products of oximinobrucine by Wieland et al. ... 

The synthetical experiments started by Openshaw and Robinson have for their immediate objective the preparation of one of the possible degradation products of strychnine, and a beginning has been made by the preparation of the lactam of hexahydrocarbazole-1 ll-/SjS -dipropionic acid (XXIV), which reproduces a portion of the strychnine molecule as represented in Robinson s formula (Ilia, p. 574), and in sulphuric acid gives a purple colour with a trace of potassium dichromate (Otto reaction). 

The sluggishness of the reaction of TIPSOTf with tertiary alcohols can be exploited to advantage, as was the case in Magnus synthesis of strychnine. The equilibrium favors the tertiary hemiketal, but silylation favors the primary alcohol. 

The latter, which is not normally isolated, may, under favorable conditions, be trapped in the presence of a strong nucleophile, as in the conversion of 340 into 338. It was surmised that the biogenetically modelled synthesis of strychnine-type systems was a demonstration of such a reaction. 

Woodward s strychnine synthesis commences with a Fischer indole synthesis using phenylhydrazine (24) and acetoveratrone (25) as starting materials (see Scheme 2). In the presence of polyphosphor-ic acid, intermediates 24 and 25 combine to afford 2-veratrylindole (23) through the reaction processes illustrated in Scheme 2. With its a position suitably masked, 2-veratrylindole (23) reacts smoothly at the ft position with the Schiff base derived from the action of dimethylamine on formaldehyde to give intermediate 22 in 92% yield. TV-Methylation of the dimethylamino substituent in 22 with methyl iodide, followed by exposure of the resultant quaternary ammonium iodide to sodium cyanide in DMF, provides nitrile 26 in an overall yield of 97%. Condensation of 2-veratryl-tryptamine (20), the product of a lithium aluminum hydride reduction of nitrile 26, with ethyl glyoxylate (21) furnishes Schiff base 19 in a yield of 92%. 

The prerequisite for an evaluation of the utility of the aza-Cope/ Mannich strategy for a synthesis of strychnine has now been satisfied. Using unsaturated azabicyclo[3.2. ljoctanols closely related to 14, the Overman group had previously demonstrated the impressive facility with which the aza-Cope/Mannich reaction can construct the complex molecular frameworks of ( )-dehydrotubifoline and... 

Note It is possible to differentiate amino acids by color on the basis of the markedly different shades produced [2, 3]. Proline and hydroxyproline, that only react weakly with ninhydrin, also yield pink-red colored derivatives [2]. Ergot alkaloids and LSD are detected by spraying with 10% hydrochloric add and then heating to 110°C for 20 min after they have been treated with the reagent [9]. Ergot alkaloids and LSD yield red to purple zones when treated in this manner other alkaloids, e.g. reserpine, emetine, quinine, strychnine, pilocarpine, atropine, scopolamine, cocaine and opium alkaloids, do not give a reaction [9]. 

Bonjoch and coworkers have developed a general synthetic entry to strychnos alkaloids of the curan type via a common 3a-(2-nitrophenyl)hexahydroindole-4-one intermediate. Total synthesis of (-)-strychnine is presented in Scheme 9.5.20 The first step is based on the SNAr reaction of o-iodonitrobenzene with 1,3-cyclohexanone. 

---