Synthesis, structure and NMR study of fluorinated isoxazoles derived from hemi-curcuminoids

The purpose of this work is to prepare a series of isoxazoles bearing phenyl and 4'-hydroxy-styryl substituents at position 3 and 5; besides the phenyl group of the styryl residue bears one or two fluorine substituents. They were prepared to study their structure in the solid state and in solution by X-ray crystallography and solid-state NMR (SSNMR) for the solid state and NMR for the solution. The reaction of hydroxylamine with hemi-curcuminoid beta-diketones affords two isomeric isoxazoles we have named series a (3-phenyl) and b (5-phenyl) that have been identified and characterized. Four pairs have been prepared that in three cases bear one or two fluorine atoms. Three X-ray structures have been determined 3a, 3b and 5b; 3a crystallizes without solvent, 3b crystallizes with a water molecule hydrogen-bonded to a phenolic OH, finally 5b crystallizes as a solvate with a methanol molecule hydrogen-bonded to the isoxazole N atom. This hydrogen bond results in larger differences between N-15 chemical shifts in DMSO-d(6) solution and in the solid state. The splitting of some signals observed in Cross-Polarization Magic Angle Spinning (CPMAS) C-13 NMR was assigned to (1)J(CF) dipolar couplings. The combined use of crystallography and SSNMR affords a complete characterization of isomeric isoxazoles, in particular the assignment of an isoxazole to a or to b series is not a trivial matter. In this work, we describe methods for the synthesis of isoxazoles bearing fluorine substituents that are promising structures for drug discovery.