Unusual nitrogenous derivatives from Alstonia

Amines are organic derivatives of ammonia. They are formed by replacing one or more ammonia protons with alkyl or aryl groups. Depending upon the number of organyl groups bonded to nitrogen, amines are classified as primary, secondary, or tertiary. Primary amines have one organyl group attached to the nitrogen atom, while secondary and tertiary amines have two and three organyl groups attached to the nitrogen atom, respectively.

Secondary amines react with nitrous acid to form N-nitrosamines, as depicted in Figure 1. Nitrous acid, a weak and unstable acid, is formed in situ from an aqueous solution of sodium nitrite and strong acids, such as hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid, in cold conditions. In the presence of an acid, the nitrous acid gets protonated. The subsequent loss of water results in the formation of the electrophile known as nitrosonium ion.

Amines with low molecular weight are usually gaseous at room temperature, while those with high molecular weight are liquid or solids in nature. Usually, low molecular weight amines have a rotten fish-like smell. Diamines typically have a pungent smell. For instance, cadaverine and putrescine, depicted in Figure 1, are two molecules responsible for decaying tissue.

The simplest aromatic amine is phenylamine, which contains an –NH2 functionality directly attached to an aromatic ring. The name aniline is designated for this skeleton. As shown in Figure 1, the common names of the functionalized anilines involve prefixes ortho-, meta-, and para- to indicate the substitution position. Different functionalized aniline derivatives also have notable trivial names.

The secondary and tertiary amines are derivatives of ammonia, where two and three of its hydrogens are replaced by alkyl groups, respectively. Secondary and tertiary amines can be symmetrical with identical alkyl groups attached to the nitrogen atom or unsymmetrical when more than one type of alkyl group is present. The standard nomenclature of secondary and tertiary amines is similar to the names given to the primary amines. They are generally named alkylamines. As depicted in Figure 1, for...

Alkylation is one of the methods used to prepare amines. Direct alkylation of ammonia or a primary amine with an alkyl halide gives polyalkylated amines along with a quaternary ammonium salt through successive SN2 reactions. This process of making the quaternary salt through the direct alkylation method is called exhaustive alkylation.
Each alkylation step makes the nitrogen center more nucleophilic, which triggers successive alkylations until a quaternary ammonium salt is formed. Considering...