PRODUCTION OF OPTICALLY ACTIVE 1,2-ALKANEDIOL

摘要

PURPOSE:To industrially and advantageously obtain the title optically active substance useful as a raw material for medicine or agricultural chemical, by reacting an optically active glycidyl derivative with an alkyl metal compound to open the ring of the glycidyl derivative and simultaneously subjecting the glycidyl derivative to carbon-increasing reaction and then removing the protecting group of a hydroxyl group. CONSTITUTION:An optically active substance expressed by formula I (* is asymmetric carbon; R1 is protecting group of OH) is reacted with an alkyl metal compound, preferably selected from alkali metal, alkaline earth metal and copper, zinc or aluminum compound of 1-18C straight-chain or branched- chain alkyl, preferably using Li2CuCl4 as a carbon-increasing reaction catalyst to afford an optically active substance expressed by formula II (R2 is straight- chain or branced-chain alkyl) through ring-opening and simultaneously carbon- increasing reaction. Then the protecting group of hydroxyl group of the above- mentioned compound is removed to provide the optically active aimed compound expressed by formula III from a starting substance capable of producing at a low cost by microbial optical resolution or raw material capable of readily deriving from the starting substance in short process.