DOI 10.1007/s10870-011-0251-z
ORIGINAL PAPER
Received: 7 July 2011 / Accepted: 3 December 2011 / Published online: 21 December 2011
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract Betulin is a lupane triterpenoid [lup-20(29)-ene3b,28-diol, C30H50O2] showing high biological activity.
This activity is supposed to be strongly affected by the
molecular structure of its polymorphic forms. Different
solvate polymorphic forms of betulin have aroused
increasing interest as the possible anticancer agents of natural origin. X-ray diffraction was used to investigate crystal
structure of (1:1) betulinDMSO solvate. Title compound
crystallizes in the orthorhombic P212121 space group. Unit
, b =
cell parameters are as follows: a = 7.0006(2) A
, c = 33.6991(8) A
, Z = 4. Crystal packing
12.1623(3) A
and selected geometric parameters are described. It has been
found that the hydrogen bonding and the dipoledipole
interaction between DMSO molecules play the major role in
the formation of the crystal structure.
Keywords X-ray crystal structure Betulin DMSO
Hydrogen bonds Polymorphism
Introduction
Betulin [lup-20(29)-ene-3b,28-diol, C30H50O2] (1), also
known as betulinic alcohol, is a pentacyclic triterpene of
the lupane type which was one of the first natural products
identified and isolated from plants as a pure chemical
substance in 1788 by Lowitz [1]. Betulin can be obtained
from the birch bark either by sublimation or by the
extraction with organic solvents. The still growing interest
in betulin (1) and its derivatives results from their wide
spectrum of biological activities such as: anticancer, antiviral, antibacterial or hepatoprotective properties [13].
The structure of 1 is based on a 30-carbon skeleton comprising of four 6-membered rings and one 5-membered
ring. Betulin (1) has three available sites for simple
chemical modification, namely: secondary hydroxyl group
at position C-3, primary hydroxyl group at position C-28
and isopropenyl side chain at position C-20. The high
content of betulin (up to 30%) in white birch bark and the
ease of its isolation in almost any amount, make it
important starting material for synthesis of new compounds
with various interesting biological activities. In the last few
years a large number of betulin derivatives have been
reported to possess anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-HIV
and anti-leishmanial activity [1, 4]. Figure 1 shows the
numbering scheme for betulin (1).
It is well known that the large numbers of natural
molecules are capable of exhibiting polymorphism or
pseudopolymorphism [5]. More importantly, different
polymorphic forms of pharmaceutical compounds display
varying physicochemical properties, such as: solubility,
stability, density as well as bioavailability, particularly
when the drug substance is poorly soluble. Various solvent
used in the crystallization process and different melting
points reported may indicate the existence of several
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346
et al. [9]. They found three sites, where the hydrogen bonds
were formed.
In this work, we describe the crystal structure of the new
betulinDMSO (1:1) solvate in order to gain better
understanding of this important molecule.
CH2
20
30
H3C
18
12
26
11
25
DH
10
24
CH3
7
27
H
CH3
23
123
General Techniques
BH
6
HO
H3C
16
Experimental
CH2OH
15
22
28
13
14
E
17
C CH3
CH3
21
19
347
BetulinDMSO solvate (1:1) crystallizes in the orthorhombic, P212121 space group. Table 1 shows crystal parameters,
data collections and refinement details. The asymmetric unit
contains one betulin molecule and one DMSO molecule.
They are shown in Fig. 2 with displacement ellipsoids of
50% probability. The unit cell contains four molecules of
betulin and DMSO (Z = 4). The selected bond lengths, bond
angles and torsion angles are presented in Table 2. Bond
lengths and valency angles have typical values for this type
of compound [12].
Six-members ring have chair conformation, while the
cyclopentane ring adopts twisted conformation as shown
by the Cremer and Pople parameters [13] [ring A:
, h = 4.17 and u = 110.54; B: Q =
Q = 0.5480 A
,
0.5813 A, h = 10.47 and u = 358.76; C: Q = 0.6079 A
Refinement
The structure was solved using direct method with SHELXS97 software and then the solution was refined using
SHELXL97 program [11]. The aromatic hydrogen atoms
were treated as riding on their parent carbon atoms with
and assigned isotropic atomic displaced(CH) = 0.95 A
ment parameters equal to 1.2 times the value of the equivalent
atomic displacement parameters of the parent carbon atom
(Uiso(H) = 1.2Ueq(C)). The methylene H atoms were con
strained to an ideal geometry with d(CH) = 0.99 A
or
C30H50O2C2H6OS
Formula mass
520.83
Crystal system
Space group
)
a (A
Orthorhombic
P212121
)
b (A
c (A)
12.1623(3)
7.0006(2)
33.6991(8)
a ()
90.00
b ()
90.00
c ()
90.00
3)
Unit cell volume (A
2869.26(13)
Temperature (K)
100(1)
Radiation type
MoKa
-1
0.144
17,912
5,093
Rint
Final R1 values (I [ 2r(I))
0.0286
0.0786
0.2195
0.0858
0.2243
Goodness of fit on F2
1.061
Flack parameter
0.1(4)
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348
1.426(4)
C29C20C30
O2C28
1.425(5)
C29C20C19
120.1(4)
118.4(4)
C17C28
1.538(6)
C30C20C19
121.4(4)
C17C22
1.538(5)
O2C28C17
111.6(3)
C17C18
1.549(5)
O1C3C4C23
67.1(4)
C18C19
1.546(5)
O1C3C4C5
C19C20
1.519(6)
C18C19C20C29
146.5(4)
C19C21
1.569(6)
C21C19C20C29
-96.8(5)
C20C29
1.386(7)
C18C19C20C30
-36.8(6)
C20C30
S1O3
1.424(7)
1.552(12)
C21C19C20C30
C16C17C28O2
79.9(5)
66.3(4)
O1C3C2
107.3(3)
C22C17C28O2
-62.6(4)
O1C3C4
113.0(3)
C18C17C28O2
-173.3(3)
C20C19C18
116.0(3)
O3S1O3iS1i
-144.3(11)
C20C19C21
110.0(3)
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-176.9(3)
349
DH
HA
DA
DHA
O1H1O2i
0.72(6)
2.16(6)
2.793(4)
146(6)
O2H2O3ii
0.72(7)
1.85(7)
2.570(7)
175(8)
C22H22AO2
0.99
2.53
2.944(6)
105
C31H31BO2iii
0.98
2.46
3.168(11)
129
C31H31CO3iv
0.98
2.51
3.070(17)
116
0.98
2.21
2.926(11)
129
C32H32BO1v
0.98
2.51
3.209(12)
128
C31H31CO1
molecules. The oxygen atom of DMSO and the hydroxymethyl group of betulin are involved in the O2H2O3
bond, which is relatively strong with short HA distance
) and almost linear directionality (Table 3). This is
(1.85 A
the strongest H-bond in the betulinDMSO solvate complex and play an important role in determining the solidstate.
It should be noted, that in the betulinDMSO solvate the
O1H1O3 hydrogen bond has not been detected. It can
be due to the fact that the hydroxymethyl group of betulin
acts as stronger proton donor than the secondary OH group
at C3. The strength of the H-bond depends on the relative
acidities and basicities of the donor and acceptor sites and
in the case of intramolecular bonds, on the spatial
arrangement present [17]. However, the H-bond of
O3H3O1 involving the proton from the OH group at C3,
was observed by Drebushchak et al. [9] in the betulin
ethanol solvate. The hydroxyl group at C28 in betulin
molecule participates in two hydrogen bonds acting as both
donor and acceptor of protons (Fig. 4). It results in
enhancing the hydrogen bond energy over that of the sum
of individual bond energies. It can also contribute to the
fact that the O1H1O2 bond has been found weaker than
reported earlier by Drebushchak et al. [9] for the betulin
ethanol solvate (Table 3).
BetulinDMSO solvate was prepared using DMSO
water (9:1) mixture. DMSO molecules were found to predominate the formation of H-bonds in the solvate.
According to literature data, DMSO oxygen can act as a
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350
123
acids and DMSO [22], however the dipoledipole interaction was not stated.
Conclusions
BetulinDMSO (1:1) solvate crystallizes in the orthorhombic P212121 space group. It was found that the
Supplementary Material
X-ray crystallographic data reported in this paper is
deposited at the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre
as supplementary publication number CCDC 810332.
Acknowledgments This work was supported by the Medical University of Silesia, Poland, Grant No KNW-1-073/P/1/0. The work of
M.Z. was partially supported by PhD scholarship within the framework of the University as a Partner of the Economy Based on Science (UPGOW) project, subsidized by the European Social Fund
(EFS) of the European Union.
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