Synthesis of Novel α-amidino Carboxylic Acids and their Use as H-Bond Catalysts in Strecker Reaction

Aim and Objective: A wide variety of synthesized amidine derivatives are bioactive compounds. They show a vast range of medical properties. Therefore, a simple route for synthesis of novel class of amidine derivatives called amidino carboxylic acids and their use as catalysts in Strecker reaction has been reported in the current work. The stability, local charge density and hydrogen bond parameters were calculated for eight derivatives with different substituents. Materials and Methods: In order to synthesize these amidino carboxylic acids, we initially prepared Knovenogel condensation products via the reaction of isatin derivatives with malonitrile. When the reaction was performed in water, the resulting nitrile groups of malonitrile derivatives was hydrolyzed with HOAC/ H2SO4 to generate the desired amide groups. The amide groups in resulting compound converted to amine groups with two Hoffman rearrangements in the presence of NaOH/Br2. Further neutralization led to the final zwitterionic α-amidino carboxylic acids. In the next step, the catalytic activity of these compounds as H-bond donor catalyst was investigated in Strecker reaction. Results: The overall yields of the derivatives with substituent on the aromatic ring of starting isatins are higher than that for the overall yields of nitrogen-substituted isatins. The reaction of 5-nitro isatin with the next reagent gives lower yield in aryl-substituted products. An increase of catalytic activity is observed by rising the electron-withdrawing power of the aromatic ring substituents., The presence of nitro group in the structure of catalyst caused a large increase of catalytic activity in Strecker reaction. DFT calculations at B3LYP/6-31++g(d,p) and Lanl2dz level of theory showed that these compounds act as single H-bond catalysts and higher yields were obtained for complexes with stronger hydrogen bond. Conclusion: A simple and efficient method for synthesis of ɑ-amidino carboxylic acids was developed in this research. These compounds have been used as a single H-bond donor catalyst in the Strecker reaction. DFT calculations were carried out to confirm the experimental results. The obtained data from computations are in good agreement with experimental results.