A green deprotection strategy: Removing acid-labile protecting groups using lemon juice/ethanol as the solvent

Abstract

Lemon juice has been studied and reported as an efficient catalyst or green medium in organic synthesis. The present digest paper shows the successful and efficient Removal of multiple acid-labile protecting groups using crude lemon juice for the first time. Several drops of lemon juice can rapidly convert some simple liquid acetals to carbonyl compounds. Also, when mixed with ethanol, lemon juice effectively removes cyclic acetals and other protection groups on primary or secondary alcohols. In addition, for the selective Removal of acetonide on diacetone-d-glucose and its derivatives, the yield can reach more than 85%. Lemon juice, combined with ethanol as a solvent, can avoid using hazardous organic or inorganic acids to remove acid-labile protecting groups while being environmentally friendly.