Synthesis of New N‐Ethyl Dehydroamino Acid Derivatives: N‐Ethyl β,β‐Dibromo, N‐Ethyl β‐Bromo β‐Substituted, and N‐Ethyl β,β‐Disubstituted N‐Protected Dehydroamino Acid Methyl Esters

Abstract

AbstractRecently, we reported the use of a sequence of alkylation and dehydration methodologies to obtain new non‐proteinogenic amino acids (N‐ethyl α,β‐dehydroamino acids) from the methyl esters of N‐(4‐nitrophenylsulfonyl) β‐hydroxy amino acids. Thus, it was possible to obtain for the first time, non‐natural amino acids that incorporate both N‐ethyl and α,β‐dehydro moieties. Herein, we report the application of this N‐alkylation procedure to several methyl esters of β,β‐dibromo and β‐bromo β‐substituted dehydroamino acids protected with standard amine protecting groups such as tert‐butyloxycarbonyl, benzyloxycarbonyl, and (4‐nitrobenzyl)oxycarbonyl, as well as acyl and sulfonyl groups. The procedure allows the synthesis of the methyl esters of N‐protected N‐ethyl β,β‐dibromo and N‐ethyl β‐bromo β‐substituted dehydroamino acids in fair to high yields. Some of these N‐ethylated dehydroamino acid derivatives were used as substrates in cross‐coupling reactions to give β,β‐disubstituted N‐ethyldehydroalanine derivatives.