Structure-property relationship in py-hexahydrocinchonidine diastereomers: ab initio and NMR study

Two py-hexahydrocinchonidine diastereomers were selectively obtained in the heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenation of cinchonidine over supported Pt catalyst. The two isolated compounds when used as chiral base catalysts in the Michael addition of a beta-keto ester to methyl vinyl ketone gave products of opposite configuration in excess. To trace the reason of this behavior, in the present study, the structures of the two diastereomers were fully optimized by ab initio quantum chemical calculation. These results were then compared with several nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy (NOESY) signal intensities from the spectra of the two compounds. Further we performed a conformational search on all the optimized geometries independently for the two flexible torsional angles, which are linking the quinuclidine and tetrahydroquinoline moieties present in these molecules. This study allowed us to propose the configuration of the C(4)(') chiral center. Thus, the product mixture resulted in the hydrogenation of cinchonidine containing the 4'-(S)-diastereomer in excess (de = 20%). According to the computation results the 4'-(S)-diastereomer is more stable than the 4'-(R)-diastereomer. The 4'-(S)-conformer obtained by computation has lower electronic energy than the structures obtained for the 4'-(R)-diastereomer, which may explain the excess formation of the first one. The results of the Michael addition catalyzed by these diastereomers were interpreted on the basis of these conclusions.