Development of novel catalytic system to synthesize delta-aminolevulinic acid

乙酰丙酸是一种生物质化合物，许多研究者都在寻找有效利用乙酰丙酸的途径。D-氨基乙酰丙酸是乙酰丙酸的衍生物，是一种重要的生物活性化合物。在这个项目中，我们的目标是开发新的催化体系，使人们能够从乙酰丙酸直接合成β-氨基乙酰丙酸。我们第一次使用氧自由基氧化酮的α-碳的研究失败了，所以我们接下来尝试了使用铁催化剂的氧化。在研究过程中，我们可以开发大规模的铁催化剂含氮配体的合成方法。

Levulinic acid is one of biomass compounds; many researchers are looking for effective utilization of levulinic acid. Delta-aminolevulinic acid, a derivative of levulinic acid, is known to be an important bioactive compound. In this project, we aimed for the development of novel catalytic system to enable one to synthesize delta-aminolevulinic acid directly from levulinic acid. Our first study to oxidize alpha-carbon of ketone using an oxygen radical failed, so we next tried the oxidation using an iron catalyst. During the investigation, we could develop the large-scale synthetic method of the nitrogen-containing ligand of the iron catalyst.