Orotic Acid in Water Solution, a DFT and 13C NMR Spectroscopic Study

Orotic acid, a biologically important compound, can exist in aqueous solutions in several ionic and tautomeric forms. Interpretation of the experimental C-13 NMR chemical shifts of this compound based on the results of energy and magnetic shielding calculations performed by DFT B3LYP/6-311++G(2d,p)/PCM method has shown that in water solutions the diketo tautomers are the dominant structural forms of this acid and its anions. For neutral molecules the anti conformation is preferable, monoanion occurs as the conventional carboxylate anion, whereas the orotic dianion exists in two tautomeric forms in the proportion of ca. 4:1. It has been found that the experimental C-13 NMR chemical shifts can be reproduced well by the results of DFT calculations, although for the orotate monoanion some small but characteristic divergences can be noticed. Similar divergences have been also observed for a few other aromatic carboxylates. It seems that the specific solute-solvent interactions occurring in our systems can be the cause of this inconsistency. To support this hypothesis, a simple and effective method of including the specific hydration into the theoretical calculations has been proposed.