Cervinomycin A2

The impact of LR-HSQMBC very long-range (n)JCH heteronuclear shift correlation data as a supplement to HMBC data as input for the computer-assisted structure elucidation program, Structure Elucidator(®), is assessed for the first time. The severely proton-deficient xanthone antibiotic cervinomycin A2 and the alkaloid staurosporine were employed as a model compounds.

Long-range heteronuclear shift correlation methods have served as the cornerstone of modern structure elucidation protocols for several decades. The (1)H-(13)C HMBC experiment provides a versatile and relatively sensitive means of establishing predominantly (3)J(CH) connectivity with the occasional (2)J(CH) or (4)J(CH) correlation being observed. The two-bond and four-bond outliers must be identified specifically to avoid spectral and/or structural misassignment. Despite the versatility and extensive applications of the HMBC experiment, it can still fail to elucidate structures of molecules that are highly proton-deficient, e.g., those that fall under the so-called "Crews rule". In such cases, recourse to the ADEQUATE experiments should be considered. Thus, a study was undertaken to facilitate better investigator understanding of situations where it might be beneficial to apply 1,1- or 1,n-ADEQUATE to proton-rich or proton-deficient molecules. Equipped with a better understanding of when a given experiment might be more likely to provide the necessary correlation data, investigators can make better decisions on when it might be advisible to employ one experiment over the other. Strychnine (1) and cervinomycin A2 (2) were employed as model compounds to represent proton-rich and proton-deficient classes of molecules, respectively. DFT methods were employed to calculate the relevant (n)J(CH) heteronuclear proton-carbon and (n)J(CC) homonuclear carbon-carbon coupling constants for this study.

HMBC is one of the most often used and vital NMR experiments for the structure elucidation of organic and inorganic molecules. We have developed a new, high sensitivity NMR pulse sequence that overcomes the typical (2,3)JCH limitation of HMBC by extending the visualization of long-range correlation data to 4-, 5-, and even 6-bond long-range (n)JCH heteronuclear couplings. This technique should prove to be an effective experiment to complement HMBC for probing the structure of proton-deficient molecules. The LR-HSQMBC NMR experiment can, in effect, extend the range of HMBC to provide data similar to that afforded by 1,n-ADEQUATE even in sample-limited situations. This is accomplished by optimizing responses for very small (n)JCH coupings as opposed to relying on the markedly less sensitive detection of long-range coupled (13)C-(13)C homonuclear pairs at natural abundance. DFT calculations were employed to determine whether the very long-range correlations observed for cervinomycin A2 were reasonable on the basis of the calculated long-range couplings.