Extensive study of the autooxidation products of apomorphine and its pharmacologically active derivatives

The autooxidation phenomenon of apomorphine and the products of this procedure were analytically and pharmacologically studied, however we found that there have been some unclarified details of this filed. Therefore the synthesis and structure of the autooxidation products of three clinically and pharmacologically relevant aporphinoids (apomoprine, N-propyl-norapomorphine and 2-hydroxy-N-propyl-norapomorphine) were thoroughly investigated. The autooxidation of apomorphine achieved at physiological pH resulted two products; one of them is the known tetracyclic, tertiary amino ortho quinone and the hitherto unknown, fluorescent, derivatized phenanthrene-3,4-quinone. Under the same conditions N-propyl congeners resulted only the expected 1,2-dione products. The analytical structure elucidation involved the full 1H and 13C NMR assignment, UV and IR characterizations of the four isolated ortho quinone-type products exploiting the possibilities of DFT calculations for geometry optimization, NMR and IR simulations. The phenanthrene-3,4-quinone compound can be relevant in further pharmacological studies of aporphine-related oxidation products due to its potential toxicity and investigated fluorescent character.

► The autooxidation phenomenon of apomorphine.
► Synthesis and structure elucidation of the autooxidation products of three aporphinoids.
► Characterization of a hitherto unknown, fluorescent, derivatized phenanthrene-3,4-quinone.
► Structure elucidation with 1H and 13C NMR, UV and IR spectra using DFT calculations.