Claims
- 1. In a continuous process for preparing adenine by reacting an arylazomalononitrile of the formula: ##STR5## wherein Ar is an aryl group, with formic acid or its derivatives in the presence of ammonia at an elevated temperature to produce a 4,6-diamino-5-arylazopyrimidine and subjecting the resulting reaction mixture to a reaction under a catalytic reduction condition in which catalytic reduction of the 4,6-diamino-5-arylazopyrimidine and cyclization of the resulting 4,5,6-triaminopyrimidine into adenine takes place, the improvement which comprises removing ammonia from said resulting reaction mixture and carrying out the catalytic reduction in the substantial absence of ammonia, and wherein said arylazomalononitrile is prepared by coupling a diazonium salt with malononitrile at a temperature of not more than 25.degree. C. at pH 3.5 to 5.5 and drying the resulting coupling reaction product to not more than 5% by weight in water content.
- 2. The process of claim 1, wherein said diazonium salt is one prepared by reacting an aromatic amine with sodium nitrite at a temperature of not more than 12.degree. C.
- 3. In a continuous process for preparing adenine by reacting an arylazomalononitrile of the formula: ##STR6## wherein Ar is an aryl group, with formic acid or its derivatives in the presence of ammonia at an elevated temperature to produce a 4,6-diamino-5-arylazopyrimidine and subjecting the resulting reaction mixture to a reaction under a catalytic reduction condition in which catalytic reduction of the 4,6-diamino-5-arylazopyrimidine and cyclization of the resulting 4,5,6-triaminopyrimidine into adenine take place, the improvement which comprises removing ammonia from said resulting reaction mixture and carrying out the catalytic reduction in the substantial absence of ammonia, and in the presence of a Raney nickel catalyst, and 1 to 300% by weight of active carbon based on the Raney nickel catalyst.
- 4. In a continuous process for preparing adenine by reacting an arylazomalononitrile of the formula: ##STR7## wherein Ar is an aryl group, with formic acid or its derivatives in the presence of ammonia at an elevated temperature to produce a 4,6-diamino-5-arylazopyrimidine and subjecting the resulting reaction mixture to a reaction under a catalytic reduction condition in which catalytic reduction of the 4,6-diamino-5-arylazopyrimidine and cyclization of the resulting 4,5,6-triaminopyrimidine into adenine take place, the improvement which comprises removing ammonia from said resulting reaction mixture and carrying out the catalytic reduction in the substantial absence of ammonia, recovering adenine from the reaction mixture in the reaction under a catalytic reduction condition, and purifying the adenine by dissolving it in hot water at pH 7.5 to 9.0, separating insoluble materials, adding a mineral acid to the solution of adenine to form a mineral acid salt of adenine and decolorizing the solution with activated carbon.
- 5. The process of claim 4, wherein said mineral acid is a member selected from the group consisting of sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid and hydrochloric acid.
- 6. The process of claim 4, wherein an inorganic salt selected from the group consisting of Glauber's salt, sodium chloride, ammonium chloride, ammonium carbonate and ammonium dihydrogenphosphate is present in the hot water adjusted to pH 7.5 to 9.0.
Priority Claims (4)
| Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
| 55-34723 |
Mar 1980 |
JPX |
|
| 55-34724 |
Mar 1980 |
JPX |
|
| 55-108046 |
Aug 1980 |
JPX |
|
| 55-141960 |
Oct 1980 |
JPX |
|
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This is a division of application Ser. No. 571,150 filed Jan. 17, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,883, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 285,805, filed Jul. 22, 1981, now abandoned.
The present invention relates to a process for preparing adenine, and more particularly to a process for preparing adenine by thermally reacting an arylazomalononitrile of the general formula (I): ##STR1## wherein Ar is an aryl group, with formic acid or its derivatives in the presence of ammonia, and subjecting the resulting pyrimidine derivative to catalytic reduction substantially in the absence of ammonia.
Hitherto, there are known processes for the preparation of adenine using the arylazomalononitrile [I] as a starting material, e.g. in examined Japanese Patent Publication (Tokkyo Kokoku) No. 23516/1976, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication (Tokkyo Kokai) No. 81394/1974 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,314.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 23516/1976 discloses a process for preparing adenine in a single process step, in which adenine is prepared by reacting an arylazomalononitrile with a formic acid derivative in the presence of ammonia under a catalytic reduction condition. Japanese Patent Publication No. 81394/1974 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,314 disclose a process for preparing adenine in two process steps, in which an arylazomalononitrile is first thermally reacted with a formic acid derivative in the presence of ammonia to produce a pyrimidine derivative of the general formula (II): ##STR2## wherein Ar is an aryl group, and after isolating the pyrimidine derivative (11) or without conducting the isolation, the pyrimidine derivative (II) is subsequently reacted with a formic acid derivative under a catalytic reduction condition. In the reaction of the second step under catalytic reduction condition, hydrogenation of the pyrimidine derivative (II) and ring closure reaction of the resulting triaminopyrimidine take place.
These processes are superior to previously known processes for the preparation of adenine, but are not always satisfactory in the yield and purity of the obtained crude adenine. That is to say, the former process of one stage is simple in procedure, but the yield and purity are insufficient. In the latter process of two stages, adenine of a good purity is obtained in a good yield when the pyrimidine derivative (II) is once isolated and the reaction under catalytic reduction condition is then carried out, but the isolation procedure is very troublesome and is hard to apply to industrial preparation. When the reaction of the second step is successively carried out without taking out the pyrimidine derivative (II) from the reaction system, the yield and purity of the obtained adenine are not sufficient, and also it is hard to obtain adenine in a constant yield. In these known processes, amorphous greenish gray materials are by-produced as impurities, thus resulting in lowering of the yield and purity of the product.
The thus produced crude adenine has been generally purified in a manner in which a mixture of the crude adenine and water, e.g. water 40 to 50 times the amount of adenine, is refluxed to dissolve adenine and then decolored with an adsorbent such as active carbon. As special instances of purification, there are also known a process in which adenine is adsorbed by passing through a column of active carbon and is eluted with aqueous ammonia., a process using a cation-exchange resin (e.g. commercially available under the commercial name "Amberlite IR-120B" made by Rohm & Haas Co.); and a process in which impurities are oxidatively decomposed with potassium permanganate under an acidic condition to remove them and decoloration is then conducted with active carbon. Purification by sublimation is also proposed.
However, these purification processes are not satisfactory processes. In case of the above-mentioned general purification process by refluxing of a mixture of crude adenine and water followed by decoloration with active carbon, the purity and whiteness are insufficient, and the other purification processes also have problems in purity, purification loss and cost.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a process for preparing adenine in high yields and high purity.
A further object of the invention is to prepare adenine directly from the arylazomalononitrile (I) in high yields and high purity without isolating the intermediate pyrimidine derivative (II) by a two stage process in which the arylazomalononitrile is thermally reacted with formic acid or its derivatives in the presence of ammonia and the resulting pyrimidine derivative is then reacted with formic acid or its derivative under a catalytic reduction condition
A still further object of the invention is to provide a starting material, an arylazomalononitrile, having a good quality suitable for preparing adenine of high purity in high yields.
A further object of the invention is to provide a process for preparing adenine of high purity in high yields in a shortened period of reaction time.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process for purification to give adenine of high purity and high whiteness.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the description hereinafter.
It has now been found that in the preparation of adenine by the reaction of an arylazomalononitrile with formic acid or its derivatives in the presence of ammonia with heating, followed by the reaction under catalytic reduction condition of the intermediate 4,6-diamino-5-arylazopyrimidine, ammonia present at the time of the catalytic reduction causes the lowering of the yield and purity of adenine, and accordingly the yield and purity can be increased without isolating the intermediate 4,6-diamino-5-arylazopyrimidine when the catalytic reduction is carried out after removal of ammonia.
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| Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
| 2658889 |
Goldberg et al. |
Nov 1953 |
|
| 3213124 |
Sheppard |
Oct 1965 |
|
| 3382228 |
Ferrari et al. |
May 1968 |
|
| 4092314 |
van der Zwan |
May 1978 |
|
Foreign Referenced Citations (6)
| Number |
Date |
Country |
| 0780858 |
Mar 1968 |
CAX |
| 1416000 |
Nov 1964 |
FRX |
| 0001780 |
Aug 1968 |
JPX |
| 0081394 |
Aug 1974 |
JPX |
| 0023516 |
Jul 1976 |
JPX |
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GBX |
Non-Patent Literature Citations (1)
| Entry |
| Kirk-Othmer, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, 2nd, ed., vol. 4, p. 156 (1964). |
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
| Parent |
571150 |
Jan 1984 |
|
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
| Parent |
285805 |
Jul 1981 |
|
Patent Grant
4997939
