Antibiotics (Sep 2021)

Microwave-Assisted, One-Pot Synthesis of Doxycycline under Heterogeneous Catalysis in Water

  • Fabio Bucciol,
  • Elia Maffeis,
  • Emanuela Calcio Gaudino,
  • László Jicsinszky,
  • Silvia Tagliapietra,
  • Alessandro Barge,
  • Cristina Prandi,
  • Giancarlo Cravotto

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10091084
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 9
p. 1084

Abstract

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The selective synthesis of active pharmaceutical molecules is a challenging issue, particularly when attempting to make the reactions even more sustainable. The present work focuses on the microwave-assisted hydrogenolysis of oxytetracycline to selectively produce α-doxycycline. Although the combination of microwave irradiation and a heterogeneous rhodium catalyst provided good conversions, the selective synthesis of active α-doxycycline was only achieved when an oxytetracycline-cyclodextrin complex was used as the starting material, giving the desired product at 34.0% yield in a one-step reaction under very mild conditions.

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