In the title alkaloid, (9a,13a)-5,6,8,14-tetradehydro-4-hydroxy-3,6-dimethoxy-17-methylmorphinan-7-one, the mean value of three C--N--C angles is 111.0 (4) ° indicating sp 3 hybridization of the N atom.The interplanar angle between the aromatic ring A and planar ring D [maximum deviation 0.051 (5)/~ at C14] is 53.8 (1)°. The absolute configuration has been assigned to agree with the known chirality at C3 (S) [Southon & Buckingham, (1989). Dictionary of Alkaloids, p. 974. London: Chapman and Hall].
CommentSinoacutine is an enantiomer of salutaridine. In nature it occurs both in optically active and racemic © 1993 International Union of Crystallography REGULAR STRUCTURAL PAPERS 979 forms (Stuart, 1971). Sinoacutine contains a sequence isosteric with y-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and according to in vitro measurements (Kardos, Blask6, Simonyi & Szfintay, 1984) it can be considered as a partial agonist of the GABA/ benzodiazepine receptor complex. Sinoacutine plays an important role as biosynthetic intermediate in the formation of morphine (Barton & Cohen, 1957).The title alkaloid of morphinandienone-type was isolated from the aerial parts of the species Corydalis ochroleuca. The extraction of dried plant material was carried out according to Preininger, Vesely, Ga~i6, ~imanek & Dolej~ (1975) and it was isolated as described by Gagi6, Popovi6 & Dragutinovi6 (1985). Total synthesis of sinoacutine has been described by Ludwig & Schaefer (1986).From the puckering parameters (Cremer & Pople, 1975) of ring B [Q = 0.530 (6) .~, ~o = 18.2 (8) °, 0 = 52.6 (6) °] it can be seen that it is a transition form between half-chair and envelope shape, whereas ring C [Q = 0.556 (6) .,~, ~p = 305 (4) °, 0 = 8.6 (6)°], forming a bridge between C ll and the chiral atom C3, adopts an almost perfect chair conformation. HY participates in a symmetrical three-centered hydrogen-bond interaction (Jeffrey, 1978). 1.514 (7) C12--C13 1.328 (6) C3--N 1.475 (7) C13--C14 1.479 (7) C4--C5 1.520 (7) C13--O4 1.371 (6) C5--C61.387 (7) C14--O1 1.214 (6) C5--C101.408 (7) C15--C16 1.521 (7) C6--C71.361 (8) C15--N 1.471 (7) C7--C81.372 (8) C17--O2 1.403 (7) C8--C91.402 (7) C18--O4 1.399 (7) C8--O21.363 (6) C19--N 1.469 (7) C9--C101.387 (6)Data were corrected for Lorentz and polarization factors. A value for Rint is missing since a unique data set was collected. The structure was solved by direct methods using SHELXS86 (Sheldrick, 1985) and refined using SHELX76 (Sheldrick, 1976). The positions of H atoms were generated from assumed geometry except that of H3' which was calculated using the program MMX (Allinger, Scb_~fer, Siam, Klimkowski & van Alsenoy, 1985) and refined isotropically. The positions of H atoms in CH3 groups were checked on a Ap map. Non-H atoms were refined anisotropicaUy. Several weighting schemes were tested and the best results were obtained with the unit weight. The overall isotropic temperature factor for H atoms was U1 = 0.0575 (50) A 2 and for the methyl H atoms U2 = 0.0868 (73) ,~2. Software used to prepare material for...