Question

(b) One of your illustrious colleagues continues his/her education and finally obtains employment with a renowned pharmaceutical company as an organic chemist. He or she is asked to synthesize pantothenic acid because the company wants to use it to prepare a synthetic form of coenenzyme A. Your colleague devises a seven-step synthesis for pantothenic acid:

(1) Isobutyraldehye + formaldehyde + NaOH/H2O → II (C5H10O2)
(2) II + NaCN → (C6H10O2 NNa) + H2O → III (C6H11O2 N) + NaOH
(3) III + H2O + H2SO4 + heat → IV (C6H12O4) + NH4HSO4
(4) IV + H3O+ + heat → V (C6H10O3)
(5) V + NaOH + heat → VI (C6H11O4Na)
(6) VI + sodium 2-aminopropionate → sodium pantothenoate + H2O
(7) Sodium pantothenoate + HCl(aq) → pantothenic acid + NaCl(aq)

(a) Suggest structures for II, III, IV, V, and VI.

Answer 1

Come on have a go at some of these steps and we will comment. I have done step 1 in a previous post.