Synlett 2009(11): 1809-1811  
DOI: 10.1055/s-0029-1217356
LETTER
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart ˙ New York

A Mild, Highly Efficient, and Chemoselective Deprotection of Trityl Ethers of Carbohydrates and Nucleosides Using Iodine Monobromide [¹]

Satish Malik, K. P. Ravindranathan Kartha*
Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, SAS Nagar, Punjab 160062, India
e-Mail: rkartha@niper.ac.in;
Further Information

Publication History

Received 23 February 2009
Publication Date:
12 June 2009 (online)

Abstract

Iodine monobromide in dichloromethane-methanol or acetonitrile constitutes an effective reagent for the deprotection of O-trityl and O-dimethoxytrityl ethers of carbohydrates and nucleosides. Acid-labile functionalities (acetals, O-p-methoxybenzyl ethers, etc.) as well as base-labile groups (esters and amides) are stable under these conditions; and the method has been found to be superior to the hitherto known literature methods.

17

The workup and isolation of the product are also a lot more convenient in the present case as the literature method³ makes use of glacial AcOH as the solvent for the reaction.

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Treatment of 5 with HBr/AcOH reagent in CH2Cl2 as described for 3 led to the formation of a mixture of 1,2-O- and 3,4-O-isopropylidene-d-galactoses and d-galactose as judged by TLC and ¹H NMR spectroscopy.

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Typical Procedure for Conversion of 3 → 4
Method A
IBr (1.2 mL of a 1 M soln in CH2Cl2, 1.2 mmol) was added to a soln of 3 (562 mg, 1 mmol) in MeCN (10 mL) and was stirred until TLC (EtOAc-hexanes, 2:3) showed completion of the reaction. The reaction mixture was then diluted with CH2Cl2 and was washed successively with dilute aq Na2S2O3 and Na2CO3 soln, dried (Na2SO4), concentrated to dryness under reduced pressure and was purified by column chroma-tography (silica gel; EtOAc-hexanes, 2:3) to yield crystals (308 mg, 95%) of 4.
Alternatively, after the completion of the reaction, the workup can also be carried out by stirring the reaction mixture with Amberlite IRA-400 (hydroxide form) resin to get a colourless solution. Filtration, concentration of the filtrate under reduced pressure, and chromatography as described above afforded 4.
Method B
The reaction was carried out by the same procedure as described above but CH2Cl2-MeOH (9:1) was used as the solvent instead of MeCN. The product was obtained in practically the same yield.