Total Synthesis of (R)-Glycerol Acetonide and the Antiepileptic and Hypotensive Drug (-)-γ-Amino-β-hydroxybutyric Acid (GABOB): Use of Vitamin C as a Chiral Starting Material

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ja00540a022

Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) (9) is shown to be a useful, inexpensive chiral starting material for natural products synthesis.It is converted in high yield via two synthetic operations into (R)-glycerol acetonide (7), the more inaccessible enantiomer of glycerol acetonide.Since D-(R)-glyceraldehyde acetonide (4) and the corresponding alcohol 1 have been used in many total syntheses of a wide variety of compounds, the ready availability of the opposite enantiomers L-(S)-glyceraldehyde acetonide (6) and glycerol (7) should be of greate value.As one indication of this potential synthetic utility, the hypotensive, antiepileptic compound (R)-(-)-γ-amino-β-hydroxybutyric acid (GABOB) (8) has been synthesized from ascorbic acid (9) via nine steps in 10percent overall yield.As further evidence of the importance of these synthesis, several useful intermediates for the preparation of the highly active hypotensive agents, the aryloxypropanolamines (5), were prepared from Vitamin C.