Date of Award
4-1973
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Chemistry
First Advisor
L. Cartz
Second Advisor
R.F. Brebrick
Third Advisor
B.E. Brown
Abstract
Strychnine sulfonic acid tetrahydrate is a derivative of the complex strychnine molecule. The position of attachment of the sulfonic acid group in the strychnine molecule is important from the chemical point of view but was not known so far. The structure has been solved by the application of direct methods using the role of structure invariants. It has been found that the sulfonic acid group is attached to a tertiary carbon in the strychnine molecule rather than the anticipated secondary carbon adjacent to the nitrogen. The structure of other strychnine derivatives such as strychnine hydrobromide dihydrate and strychnine sulfate pentahydrate has been known for some 22 years, but the hydrogen positions were not located. In the present study, all of the hydrogen atoms have been located thus giving the complete stereochemistry of the compoW1d. A comparison of the strychnine molecule in three of its derivatives has shown that the molecular configuration remains the same in all of the structures. The real differences in bond lengths and bond angles are probably due to their crystallographic environments .