Acyl radical insertion for the direct formation of new 7-substituted pterin analogs.

A variety of pterin molecules were synthesized via an under-utilized acyl radical insertion, using aldehydes and alpha-keto esters as the acyl source. These reactions gave complete regiospecificity for the 7-isomer, with reaction times ranging in minutes, often with instantaneous product precipitation. This approach led to the construction of new pterin analogs unaccessable via traditional Friedel-Crafts acylation. The compounds were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectroscopy.