Geometry versus basicity of bilatrienes: Stretched and helical protonated biliverdins

Abstract

The ease of protonation of bilatrienes at the pyrrolenine nitrogen critically depends on their conformation. The biliverdin2 being constrained to a helical (Z, Z, Z, syn, syn, syn) geometry by its four link chain is ca. three orders of magnitude less basic than flexible open-chain bilatrienes like biliverdin-IXα dimethyl ester (1), which is shown to adopt a stretched conformation in its monoprotonated form. These results are obtained by a comparative investigation of the titrations of1 and2 with sulfuric acid in methanol and methanol-water by means of UV-VIS and NMR spectroscopy.