US 6,184,381 B2Granted

Process for preparing optically active compounds

AssigneesJapan Science and Technology Corporation, NKK Corporation, Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd., Asahi Kasei Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Takasago Intl. Corp.

InventorsTakao Ikariya, Shohei Hashiguchi, Jun Takehara, Nobuyuki Uematsu, Kazuhiko Matsumura, Ryoji Noyori, Akio Fujii

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

patentgrep

Loading patent…

Abstract

This document describes a novel and practically excellent process for the preparation of optically active compounds, such as optically active alcohols or amines which are useful for various applications, for example, as synthetic intermediates of pharmaceuticals, liquid crystal materials, and reagents for optical resolution, wherein a hydrogen transfer type asymmetric reduction is carried out in the presence of both a transition metal complex and an optically active nitrogen compound or a transition metal complex having an optically active nitrogen compounds as an asymmetric ligand, and a hydrogen-donating organic or inorganic compound.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A method for producing optically active compounds, comprising subjecting a compound represented by the following formula (I);

(wherein Ra and Rb independently represent a linear or cyclic hydrocarbon group or heterocyclic group, which may or may not have a substituent;
W, represents oxygen atom, N—H, N—Rc, N—OH or N—O—Rd;
and Rc and Rd independently represent a linear or cyclic hydrocarbon group or heterocyclic group, which may or may not have a substituent),
to transfer-type asymmetric reduction in the presence of a transition metal complex and an optically active nitrogen-containing compound or a transition metal complex with an optically active nitrogen-containing compound as an asymmetric ligand, along with a hydrogen-donating organic or inorganic compound, to produce an optically active compound represented by the following formula (II);
(wherein Ra and Rb independently represent the same as those described above;
W2 represents OH, NH2, NH—Rc, NH—OH or NH—O—Rd;
and Rc and Rd independently represent the same as those described above).

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.