Lactams—I The synthesis and acid hydrolysis of 4- and 5-substituted 1-benzyl-2-piperidone derivatives

In order to explain the difficulty in hydrolysing the lactam linkage of 1-benzyl-2-oxo-5-ethyl-4-piperidineacetic acid (XIV) under acid conditions, several model compounds such as 1-benzyl-2-piperidone (X), 1-benzyl-5-ethyl-2-piperidone (XI), 1-benzyl-4-ethyl-2-piperidone (XII) and 1-benzyl-2-oxo-4-piperidineacetic add (XIII) were prepared and their hydrolysis in boiling 6N HCl was studied. For each of the lactams, the hydrolysis was found to proceed to an equilibrium as shown in Table 1. Substituents at the 4- and 5-positions of the piperidone ring seemed to favour the ring form in the equilibrium between piperidones (X-XIV) and ω-amino acid hydrochlorides (type XV).