Synthesis and asymmetric reducing performance of chitin/dihydronicotinamide conjugates having glycine or L-leucine spacer arms

Chitin/dihydronicotinamide conjugates having glycine or L-leucine spacer arms have been prepared and evaluated as asymmetric reducing agents. N-Nicotinoylglycine and N-nicotinoyl-L-leucine were synthesized and coupled with the amino group of water-soluble 50%-deacetylated chitin. The remaining free amino groups were acetylated, and the nicotinamide groups were transformed into dihydronicotinamide moieties by quaternization followed by reduction. The resulting L-leucine-containing conjugate reduced ethyl benzoylformate efficiently with high chemical yield and asymmetric selectivity, whereas the glycine-containing conjugate gave only poor results. The recovered L-leucine-containing conjugate was reduced to regenerate the dihydronicotinamide structure and could be used again. The L-leucine residue has thus proved suitable as a spacer arm to achieve a high reducing performance.