Design, synthesis and utilization of a novel coupling reagent for the preparation of O-alkyl hydroxamic acids

Synthesis of Chiral Diarylmethylamides via Catalytic Asymmetric Aza-Michael Addition of Amides to ortho-Quinomethanes

Chiral diarylmethylamides are a privileged skeleton in many bioactive molecules. However, the enantioselective synthesis of such molecules remains a long-standing challenge in organic synthesis. Herein, we report a chiral bifunctional squaramide catalyzed asymmetric aza-Michael addition of amides to in situ generated ortho-quinomethanes, affording enantioenriched diarylmethylamides in good yields with excellent enantioselectivities. This work not only provides a new strategy for the construction of the diarylmethylamides but also represents the practicability of amides as nitrogen-nucleophiles in asymmetric organocatalysis.

N-Hydroxybenzimidazole as a structurally modifiable platform for N-oxyl radicals for direct C-H functionalization reactions

A novel class of N-oxy radicals based on flexibly modifiable N-hydroxybenzimidazole skeleton was designed and applied to C–H functionalization reactions.

Methods for direct functionalization of C–H bonds mediated by N-oxyl radicals constitute a powerful tool in modern organic synthesis. While several N-oxyl radicals have been developed to date, the lack of structural diversity for these species has hampered further progress in this field. Here we designed a novel class of N-oxyl radicals based on N-hydroxybenzimidazole, and applied them to the direct C–H functionalization reactions. The flexibly modifiable features of these structures enabled facile tuning of their catalytic performance. Moreover, with these organoradicals, we have developed a metal-free approach for the synthesis of acyl fluorides via direct C–H fluorination of aldehydes under mild conditions.

Bioprocess development for nicotinic acid hydroxamate synthesis by acyltransferase activity of Bacillus smithii strain IITR6b2

In this work, acyltransferase activity of a new bacterial isolate Bacillus smithii strain IITR6b2 was utilized for the synthesis of nicotinic acid hydroxamate (NAH), a heterocyclic class of hydroxamic acid. NAH is an important pyridine derivative and has found its role as bioligand, urease inhibitor, antityrosinase, antioxidant, antimetastatic, and vasodilating agents. Amidase having acyltransferase activity with nicotinamide is suitable for nicotinic acid hydroxamate production. However, amidase can also simultaneously hydrolyze nicotinamide and nicotinic acid hydroxamate to nicotinic acid. Nicotinic acid is an undesirable by-product and thus any biocatalytic process involving amidase for nicotinic acid hydroxamate production needs to have high ratios of acyltransferase to amide hydrolase and acyltransferase to nicotinic acid hydroxamate hydrolase activity. Isolate Bacillus smithii strain IITR6b2 was found to have 28- and 12.3-fold higher acyltransferase to amide and hydroxamic acid hydrolase activities, respectively. This higher ratio resulted in a limited undesirable by-product, nicotinic acid (NA) synthesis. The optimal substrate/co-substrate ratio, pH, temperature, incubation time, and resting cells concentration were 200/250 mM, 7, 30 °C, 40 min, and 0.7 mgDCW ml−1, respectively, and 94.5 % molar conversion of nicotinamide to nicotinic acid hydroxamate was achieved under these reaction conditions. To avoid substrate inhibition effect, a fed-batch process based on the optimized parameters with two feedings of substrates (200/200 mM) at 40-min intervals was developed and a molar conversion yield of 89.4 % with the productivity of 52.9 g h−1 gDCW  −1 was achieved at laboratory scale. Finally, 6.4 g of powder containing 58.5 % (w/w) nicotinic acid hydroxamate was recovered after lyophilization and further purification resulted in 95 % pure product.