(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:

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.

Dr Russ · Answer

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