1195-09-1Relevant articles and documents
A simple and regioselective carbon-oxygen bond cleavage using Niobium(V)
Arai, Shigeru,Sudo, Yukinori,Nishida, Atsushi
, p. 1104 - 1106 (2004)
A simple and convenient method for the differentiation of alkoxy groups on aromatic rings is described. Niobium(V) is found to possess a strong Lewis acid property to transform alkyl arylethers smoothly to the corresponding phenols in high yields. The excellent regioselectivity was also observed in dialkoxy benzene derivatives under mild conditions.
Irvine,Saxby
, p. 2067,2069 (1969)
Thiols Act as Methyl Traps in the Biocatalytic Demethylation of Guaiacol Derivatives
Grimm, Christopher,Kroutil, Wolfgang,Pompei, Simona,Schiller, Christine,Schober, Lukas
supporting information, p. 16906 - 16910 (2021/07/02)
Demethylating methyl phenyl ethers is challenging, especially when the products are catechol derivatives prone to follow-up reactions. For biocatalytic demethylation, monooxygenases have previously been described requiring molecular oxygen which may cause oxidative side reactions. Here we show that such compounds can be demethylated anaerobically by using cobalamin-dependent methyltransferases exploiting thiols like ethyl 3-mercaptopropionate as a methyl trap. Using just two equivalents of this reagent, a broad spectrum of substituted guaiacol derivatives were demethylated, with conversions mostly above 90 %. This strategy was used to prepare the highly valuable antioxidant hydroxytyrosol on a one-gram scale in 97 % isolated yield.
Oxygen-Free Regioselective Biocatalytic Demethylation of Methyl-phenyl Ethers via Methyltransfer Employing Veratrol- O-demethylase
Grimm, Christopher,Lazzarotto, Mattia,Pompei, Simona,Schichler, Johanna,Richter, Nina,Farnberger, Judith E.,Fuchs, Michael,Kroutil, Wolfgang
, p. 10375 - 10380 (2020/10/02)
The cleavage of aryl methyl ethers is a common reaction in chemistry requiring rather harsh conditions; consequently, it is prone to undesired reactions and lacks regioselectivity. Nevertheless, O-demethylation of aryl methyl ethers is a tool to valorize natural and pharmaceutical compounds by deprotecting reactive hydroxyl moieties. Various oxidative enzymes are known to catalyze this reaction at the expense of molecular oxygen, which may lead in the case of phenols/catechols to undesired side reactions (e.g., oxidation, polymerization). Here an oxygen-independent demethylation via methyl transfer is presented employing a cobalamin-dependent veratrol-O-demethylase (vdmB). The biocatalytic demethylation transforms a variety of aryl methyl ethers with two functional methoxy moieties either in 1,2-position or in 1,3-position. Biocatalytic reactions enabled, for instance, the regioselective monodemethylation of substituted 3,4-dimethoxy phenol as well as the monodemethylation of 1,3,5-trimethoxybenzene. The methyltransferase vdmB was also successfully applied for the regioselective demethylation of natural compounds such as papaverine and rac-yatein. The approach presented here represents an alternative to chemical and enzymatic demethylation concepts and allows performing regioselective demethylation in the absence of oxygen under mild conditions, representing a valuable extension of the synthetic repertoire to modify pharmaceuticals and diversify natural products.
