Abstract (eng)
Azidonitration and the anomeric effect
The case of per-O-acetyl-cellobial [2,3,4,6- tetra-O-acetyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1-4)-3,6-di-O-acetyl-1,5-anhydro-1,2-eno-D-glucitol]
Azidonitration of per-O-acetylcellobial (1) under the conditions described by Lemieux and Ratcliffe (1976) affords essentially four chromatographically separable fractions of products.
Fraction I (app. 32%) is composed of the 2-azido-desoxy- β-D-gluco-1-O-nitro derivate (2) and the 2-azido-desoxy-α-D-manno-1-O-nitro isomer (3) in ratios varying from 15-20 : 1. Fraction II (app. 59%) is the pure 2-azido-desoxy-α-D-gluco-1-O-nitro derivative. (4 ).
Fractions III and IV are the 2-azido-1,2-didesoxy-α and β-D-gluco-1-acetamido derivatives (7) and (8) (ca. 9%). Components (2) and (3) of Fraction I are inseparable by ordinary flash chromatography. Treatment of Fraction I with tetrabutylammonium nitrate converts the mayor portions of (2) into its α-anomer (4) whereas the α-D-manno derivative (3) remains largely unchanged. By contrast, treatment of Fraction II (4) with tetrabutylammonium nitrate affords only app. 10% of the pure β-D-gluco-azido-1-O-nitro derivate (2) while app. 90% of (4) remain unchanged. Treatment of Fraction I with sodium acetate in acetic acid affords mainly the α-D-gluco acetate (9) and the α-D-manno-acetate (10). By contrast, analogous treatment of the α-D-gluco nitrate (4) gives app. 30% of the α-and β-acetates (9) and (11) while app. 40% of (4) remains unchanged.
The observed differences between the reactivity of β-nitrate (2) and the relative stability of the α-nitrates (3) and (4) towards tetrabutylammonium nitrate confirm the operation, in these systems, of the anomeric effect, which causes the axial anomer of a pair of glycosyl derivates with electronegative substituents to be more stable than the equatorial anomer. Considering the anomeric effect, the rather modest yields of 2-azido-1,2-didesoxycellobiose obtainable by azidonitration of per-O-acetylcellobial are explained by the following theory.
The initially formed products of the azidonitration reaction are thus contained in Fraction I, namely the 1,2-trans-products (2) and (3). While the α-D-manno-product (3) is stable under the reaction conditions, the (equatorially disposed) β-D-gluco derivative isomer is thermodynamically unstable and reacts with the nitrate and ammonium ions formed by the reductive decomposition of the cerium (IV)-ammonium hexanitrate complex to form the α-D-gluconitrate (4) and the α-glycosylamine (5). Compound (5) will react with any of the acetate-protected compounds present in the system to form acetamide (7) and partially de-protected polar derivates which presumably escape chromatographic isolation and contribute to the over-all loss of yield. Compound (4) is also subject to reaction with ammonia to form the β-glycosylamine (6) and the acetamido derivate (8). Presently, experiments are under way to trap the unstable intermediate 2 in stable form during the azidonitration reaction, so as to avoid the formation of (4), (7) and (8) and increase the yield of 2-azido-2-desoxy-cellobiose.