Asymmetric synthesis ofS-alkyl-substituted (R)-cysteinesvia a chiral NiII complex of the Schiff's base of dehydroalanine with (S)-2-N-(N-benzylprolyl)aminobenzophenone

An efficient procedure was developed for the asymmetric synthesis ofS-alkyl derivatives of (R)-cysteine by nucleophilic addition of alkanethiols (BuⁿSH, Bu^tSH, ortert-C₅H₁₁SH) to the C=C bond of the dehydroalanine fragment in the Ni^II complex of the Schiff's base of Δ-Ala with (S)-2-N-(N-benzylprolyl)aminobenzophenone (S)-BPB-Δ-Ala]Ni^II. Under conditions of thermodynamic control of the reaction, the diastereomeric excess of the complexes with the (S.R)-configuration was 88–96%. After decomposition of the complexes,(R)-S-butylcysteine,(R)-S-tert-butylcysteine, and(R)-S-tert-pentylcysteine were isolated with an enantiomeric purity of >97%. Published inIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 8, pp. 1467–1470, August, 2000.