Large Scale Synthesis of Two Trisaccharide Spacer Glycosides Corresponding to the Blood Group A and B Determinants Using Thioglycosides and Dimethyl(Thiomethyl)Sulfonium Tetrafluoroborate (DMTSB) as Promoter

InCl3 as a powerful catalyst for the acetylation of carbohydrate alcohols under microwave irradiation

Indium(III) chloride catalyzed microwave assisted acetylation of different carbohydrates is an efficient synthesis of per-O-acetyl derivatives and provides the products in good to excellent yields.

A selective Sc(OTf)3-catalyzed trialkylsilyl ether to acetyl ester exchange reaction with β-l-idopyranoside and 3,4-O-isopropylidene-β-d-galactopyranoside derivatives

The selective silylation of monosaccharide building blocks is useful for preparing complex oligosaccharides. We now report that the diol, methyl (dimethylthexylsilyl 3-O-pivaloyl-beta-L-idopyranosyl)uronate, can be selectively silylated at the O-2 position by trialkylsilyl triflates. After protection of O-4, the O-2 silyl group can be selectively replaced by acetate by taking advantage of a trialkylsilyl-acetate exchange reaction catalyzed by Sc(OTf)3 in the presence of acetic anhydride. The high O-2 selectivity is shown for triethylsilyl (TES), tert-butyldimethylsilyl (TBS), and triisopropylsilyl (TIPS). The selective cleavage reaction only worked well for TES and TBS derivatives. A selection of silyl triflates and silyl chlorides were used as silylating reagents with ethyl 3,4-O-isopropylidene-1-thio-beta-D-galactopyranoside. In most cases, silylation afforded 2,6-di-O-silylated products in high yields. Studies on the cleavage reaction showed that only the primary silylated protecting groups were replaced by acetyl groups. This reaction worked with a variety of silyl protecting groups but not the tert-butyldiphenylsilyl (TBDPS) protecting group. Unfortunately, the 1-thioethyl group was also sensitive to the Sc(OTf)3, leading in these conditions to alpha/beta mixtures of the 1-acetates, which compromised the synthetic utility of this reaction for these compounds. The sequence presented here is a useful synthetic route to differentially protected L-iduronic acid building blocks.

Scope and limitation of the application of the (methoxydimethyl)methyl group in the synthesis of 2'-O-, 6'-O- and 2',6'-di-O-(alpha-L-arabinofuranosyl)-beta-D-galactopyranosyl- (1-->6)-D-galactoses

For the characterisation of the anticipated epitope of an arabinogalactan, isolated from the extract of Echinacea purpurea, the trisaccharide alpha-L-Araf-(1-->2)-beta-D-Galp- (1-->6)-D-Gal was synthesized. The easily available 3,4-O-isopropylidene-6-O-(methoxydimethyl)methyl-beta-D-galactopyr anosyl- (1-->6)-1,2:3,4-di-O-isopropylidene-alpha-D-galactopyranose having the OH-2' free served as aglycone upon direct arabinosylation at the 2' position under Helferich conditions. The formed HgBr2 cleaved the acid sensitive protecting group at position 6', but under basic conditions the desired, fully protected trisaccharide, or its symmetrical dimerization derivative linked 6'- to 6'-position via an isopropylidene bridge, could be obtained. An alternative route involved arabinosylation of a hepta-O-acetylated digalactose with free OH-2'. Two other oligosaccharides, namely, alpha-L-Araf-(1-->6)-beta-D-Galp-(1-->6)-D-Gal and (alpha-L-Araf)2-(1-->2,6)-beta-D-Galp-(1-->6)-D-Gal were also synthesized and characterised.