Synthesis of vitamin

The synthesis of vitamin Dj from a sensitive dienone was another etu-ly success of phosphorus ylide synthesis (H.H. Inhoffen, 1958 A). This Wittig reaction could be carried out without any isomerization of the diene. An excess of the ylide was needed presumably because the alkoxides formed from the hydroxy group in the educt removed some of the ylide. 

Sorbitol is a sweetener often substituted for cane sugar because it is better tolerated by dia betics It IS also an intermediate in the commercial synthesis of vitamin C Sorbitol is prepared by high pressure hydrogenation of glucose over a nickel catalyst What is the structure (including stereochemistry) of sorbitoP... 

Structural drawings of carbohydrates of this type are called Haworth formulas, after the British chemist Sir Walter Norman Haworth (St Andrew s University and the University of Birmingham) Early m his career Haworth contributed to the discovery that carbohydrates exist as cyclic hemiacetals rather than m open chain forms Later he col laborated on an efficient synthesis of vitamin C from carbohydrate precursors This was the first chemical synthesis of a vitamin and provided an inexpensive route to its prepa ration on a commercial scale Haworth was a corecipient of the Nobel Prize for chem istry m 1937... 

Chloroacetate esters are usually made by removing water from a mixture of chloroacetic acid and the corresponding alcohol. Reaction of alcohol with chloroacetyl chloride is an anhydrous process which Hberates HCl. Chloroacetic acid will react with olefins in the presence of a catalyst to yield chloroacetate esters. Dichloroacetic and trichloroacetic acid esters are also known. These esters are usehil in synthesis. They are more reactive than the parent acids. Ethyl chloroacetate can be converted to sodium fluoroacetate by reaction with potassium fluoride (see Fluorine compounds, organic). Both methyl and ethyl chloroacetate are used as agricultural and pharmaceutical intermediates, specialty solvents, flavors, and fragrances. Methyl chloroacetate and P ionone undergo a Dar2ens reaction to form an intermediate in the synthesis of Vitamin A. Reaction of methyl chloroacetate with ammonia produces chloroacetamide [79-07-2] C2H ClNO (53). 

A small amount of acetylene is used in condensations with carbonyl compounds other than formaldehyde. The principal uses for the resulting acetylenic alcohols are as intermediates in the synthesis of vitamins (qv). 

Phytol [505-06-5] (111) and isophytol [150-86-7] (112) are important intermediates used in commercial synthesis of Vitamins E and K. There is a variety of synthetic methods for their manufacture. Chlorophyll [479-61-8] is a phytyl ester. 

The core of the first synthesis of vitamin involved condensation of the A—D ting fragment (10) with the B—C fragment (11). The former... 

Subsequent synthesis of Vitamin D metaboUtes kivolved oxidative degradation of the vitamin D molecule to obtain the C- and D-ring portion with the kitact side chain. Recombkiation of this molecule with an appropriate stmcture containing the A-ring was then carried out by a Wittig-type condensation. 

The first synthesis of vitamin IQ was reported by several workers ia the late 1930s and the synthetic approaches have been reviewed (22). Vitamin IQ was prepared by the reaction of menadione with phytyl bromide ia the preseace of 2iac (23). 

As practiced by Hoffmann-La Roche, the commercial synthesis of vitamin is outlined ia Figure 1. Oxidation of 2-methylnaphthalene (4) yields menadione (3). Catalytic reduction to the naphthohydroquinone (5) is followed by reaction with a ben2oating reagent to yield the bis-benzoate (6). Selective deprotection yields the less hindered ben2oate (7). Condensation of isophytol (8) (see Vitamins, vitamins) with (7) under acid-cataly2ed conditions yields the coupled product (9). Saponification followed by an air oxidation yields vitamin (1) (29). 

Although the industrial synthesis of vitamin remains largely unchanged from its early beginnings, significant effort has been devoted to improvements in the condensation step, the oxidation of dihydrovitarnin to vitamin K, and in economical approaches to vitamin (vide infra). Also, several chemical and biochemical alternatives to vitamin have been developed. 

Although not of industrial importance, many organometallic approaches have been developed (38). A one-pot synthesis of vitamin has been described and is based on the anionic [4 + 2] cycloaddition of three-substituted isoben2ofuranones to l-phytyl-l-(phenylsulfonyl)propene. Owing to the rather mild chemical conditions, the (H)-stereochemistry is retained (39). 

In addition to its industrial importance as an intermediate in the synthesis of vitamin K, menadione, or more specifically, salts of its bisulfite adduct, are important commodities in the feed industry and are used as stabilized forms in this appHcation. Commercially significant forms are menadione dimethyl pyrimidinol (MPB) (10) and menadione sodium bisulfite (MSB) (11). MSB is sold primarily as its sodium bisulfite complex. The influence of feed processing, ie, pelleting, on the stabiUty of these forms has been investigated (68). The biological availabiUties and stabiUty of these commercial sources has been deterrnined (69,70). 

Cobalt is one of twenty-seven known elements essential to humans (28) (see Mineral NUTRIENTS). It is an integral part of the cyanocobalamin [68-19-9] molecule, ie, vitamin B 2> only documented biochemically active cobalt component in humans (29,30) (see Vitamins, VITAMIN Vitamin B 2 is not synthesized by animals or higher plants, rather the primary source is bacterial flora in the digestive system of sheep and cattle (8). Except for humans, nonmminants do not appear to requite cobalt. Humans have between 2 and 5 mg of vitamin B22, and deficiency results in the development of pernicious anemia. The wasting disease in sheep and cattle is known as bush sickness in New Zealand, salt sickness in Florida, pine sickness in Scotland, and coast disease in AustraUa. These are essentially the same symptomatically, and are caused by cobalt deficiency. Symptoms include initial lack of appetite followed by scaliness of skin, lack of coordination, loss of flesh, pale mucous membranes, and retarded growth. The total laboratory synthesis of vitamin B 2 was completed in 65—70 steps over a period of eleven years (31). The complex stmcture was reported by Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin in 1961 (32) for which she was awarded a Nobel prize in 1964. 

Dye-Sensitized Photoisomerization. One technological appHcation of photoisomerization is in the synthesis of vitamin A. In a mixture of vitamin A acetate (all-trans stmcture) and the 11-cis isomer (23), sensitized photoisomerization of the 11-cis to the all-trans molecule occurs using zinc tetraphenylporphyrin, chlorophyU, hematoporphyrin, rose bengal, or erythrosin as sensitizers (73). Another photoisomerization is reported to be responsible for dye laser mode-locking (74). In this example, one metastable isomer of an oxadicarbocyanine dye was formed during flashlamp excitation, and it was the isomer that exhibited mode-locking characteristics. 

Equations 4-8 illustrate some mild methods that can be used to cleave amides. Equations 4 and 5 indicate the conditions that were used by Woodward and Eschenmoser, respectively, in their synthesis of vitamin B,2- Butyl nitrite," nitrosyl chloride, and nitrosoniurn tetrafluoroborate... 

Equations 1-10 illustrate some mild methods that can be used to cleave amides. Equations 1 and 2 indicate the conditions that were used by Woodward and Eschenmoser, respectively, in their synthesis of vitamin B12. Butyl nitrite, nitrosyl chloride, and nitrosonium tetrafluoroborate (NO BF4 ) have also been used to cleave amides. Since only tertiary amides are cleaved by potassium -butoxide (eq. 3), this method can be used to effect selective cleavage of tertiary amides in the presence of primary or secondary amides.(Esters, however, are cleaved by similar conditions.) Photolytic cleavage of nitro amides (eq. 4) is discussed in a review. 

An example of this methodology was its use in the synthesis of vitamin Be, pyridoxine 12. Cycloaddition of oxazole 9, prepared from ethyl A-acetylalanate and P2O5, with maleic anhydride initially gave 10. Upon exposure to acidic ethanol, the oxabicyclooctane system fragments to afford pyridine 11. Reduction of the ester substituents with LiAlIU generated the desired product 12. 

The phosphonates obtained by the Arbuzov reaction are starting materials for the Wittig-Homer reaction (Wittig reaction), for example, appropriate phosphonates have been used for the synthesis of vitamin A and its derivatives/... 

The synthetic value of the Dotz reaction has for example been demonstrated by the synthesis of vitamin Ki(20) 10 (simplified structure). This natural product has been prepared synthetically from the chromium carbene complex 8 and the alkyne 9 in two steps the second step being the oxidative decomplexation to yield the free product 10 ... 

The alkyne hydrogenation reaction has been explored extensively by the Hoffmann-La Roche pharmaceutical company, where it is used in the commercial synthesis of vitamin A. The cis isomer of vitamin A produced on hydrogenation is converted to the trans isomer by heating. 

If you think some of the synthesis problems at the end of this chapter are hard, try devising a synthesis of vitamin B12 starting only from simple substances you can buy in a chemical catalog. This extraordinary achievement was reported in 1973 as the culmination of a collaborative effort headed by Robert B. Woodward of Harvard University and Albert Eschenmoser of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. More than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral associates contributed to the w ork, which took more than a decade. 

Louis F. Fieser (1899-1977) was born in Columbus, Ohio, and received his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1924 with James B. Conant. He was professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College and then at Harvard University from 1930 to 1968. While at Bryn Mawr. he met his future wife, Mary, then a student. In collaboration, the two Fiesers wrote numerous chemistry texts and monographs. Among his scientific contributions, Fieser was known for his work in steroid chemistry and in carrying out the first synthesis of vitamin K. He was also the inventor of jellied gasoline, or napalm, which was developed at Harvard during World War II. 

In March 1976, M.A. Wuonola and R.B. Woodward accomplished the conversion of cobyric acid (4) to vitamin B12 (1). The total synthesis of vitamin B12 can thus be claimed, see reference Id, footnote 11, p. 1420. The formal total synthesis of 1 had been accomplished in 1973. 

Sapphyrins were discovered serendipitously by Woodward33 during the course of synthetic studies directed towards the total synthesis of vitamin B, 2. The sapphyrins were the first example of expanded porphyrins in the literature. Due to sapphyrin exhibiting a deep-blue color in the crystalline state and intense green in solution. Woodward coined the expression sapphyrin with reference to the deep-blue color of sapphire stones. 

The specificity of biocatalysts also extends to site specificity (regiospecificity). This means that if several functional groups of one type are present on the molecule, only one specific position will be affected. An example of this is the microbial oxidation of D-soibitol to L-soibose, a key step in the synthesis of vitamin C (Figure 2.4). 

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