A method of preparing N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride

Abstract: N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride is prepared by a process which comprises reacting L-aspartic acid with acetic anhydride and formic acid in a molar amount of 1.05 times as large as that of aspartic acid or larger and centrifugation of the suspension of N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride after said reaction in the presence or absence of an aromatic hydrocarbon while conducting the following steps: (1) starting to supply said suspension to a separation device under a back pressure of 100 mmHg or higher; (2) releasing said back pressure at the time when half or more of said suspension has already been supplied; and, (3) subsequently filtrating and/or conducting dehydration of the cake while if necessary washing the cake. This method provides anhydride crystals having a small amount of residual formic acid.

Description: Field of the invention The present invention relates to a method of preparing N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride as an intermediate for the production of a dipeptide-based sweetener α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method of preparing N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine and N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester using N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride as a starting material. Background of the invention N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride (hereinafter referred to as anhydride) is usually obtained by the reaction of N-formyl-L-aspartic acid with formic acid and acetic anhydride (hereinafter referred to as dehydration reaction). As such a reaction known is a reaction in which acetic acid and formic acid are employed in almost stoichiometric amounts based on aspartic acid (JPA S59-46279 and S63-63699), which is problematic in that the yield is low as based on the amount of aspartic acid as the starting material. In order to increase the yield of the dehydration reaction, it is necessary to use formic acid and acetic anhydride both in excessive amounts relative to the amount of aspartic acid. In such a case, significant amounts of unreacted formic acid and acetic acid remain even at the end of the reaction. US-5,183,937 discloses a process for recovering acetic acid from the mother liquor used as the reaction medium for the formation of N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride. The process comprises separating N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride crystals from the mother liquor, heating said mother liquor to convert formic acetic anhydride to acetic acid and carbon monoxide and to fully deplete either said acetic anhydride or said formic acid, and separating acetic acid from the mother liquor. When α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester (hereinafter referred to as α-APM) is produced as a final product, the anhydride formed in this step is reacted subsequently with L-phenylalanine or its methyl ester(hereinafter referred to as PM) to yield N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine (hereinafter referred to as F-α-AP) or its methyl ester (hereinafter referred to as F-α-APM), (hereinafter this reaction is referred to as condensation reaction). In such a condensation reaction, formic acid, if it remains, inhibits the reaction and serves to reduce the producibility of N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine or its methyl ester (α-form) relative to N-formyl-β-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine or its methyl ester (β-form). There is no effective means to convert such a β-form once produced to the α-form in a subsequent step such as a deformylation step, and β-APM derived from β-form exhibits no sweetness. Accordingly, the reduction in the production ratio of the α-form and the β-form (α/β ratio) in the condensation process results in an increase in production loss, which leads to an increase of the necessary amount of the starting materials and their reactants. As an attempt to remove formic acid, proposed is a method of evaporating the dehydration reaction fluid to dryness (US-A-3 933 781). However, in view of the stability of the reaction products and the handling at an industrial scale, preferably the anhydride suspended in the dehydration reaction fluid is once subjected to solid/liquid separation, and then the isolated anhydrous crystals are subjected to the condensation reaction. It is also known that the isolation yield can be increased by conducting this separation in the presence of an aromatic hydrocarbon and/or halogenated hydrocarbon (JPA S51-91210). Although it is preferable to separate the anhydride from the reaction fluid by centrifugation in view of reducing as much as possible the residual solvent in the anhydride crystals after the separation, the centrifugation process involves problems that are characteristic of this system. Thus, the first problem is due to the fact that the anhydride crystals produced by the method mentioned above are in the form of a column having a diameter and height both as large as from 1 mm to 3 mm, resulting in a great intrinsic specific gravity which leads to quite rapid sedimentation. Accordingly, when the suspension is supplied to the filter whose basket has already started rotation, the filtration is completed instantly and therefore the separated anhydride crystals formed on the basket at a certain thickness, i.e., the cake, show local deposition without a uniformity in thickness. Such a condition affects the safety of the operation of the device, and makes it difficult to operate it continuously. As an attempt to avoid such unbalanced cake deposition, proposed is a method of supplying the suspension while rotating the basket at a quite low rate. However, a too low rotation rate results in the deposition of the cake concentrated in the place under the basket. Thus, the reduction in the rotation rate is also limited, and a rotation rate smaller than such limit fails to completely prevent unbalanced deposition. Once such unbalanced deposition of the cake is formed at the time of fluid supply, subsequent filtration and dehydration should be conducted also at a very low rotation rate in view of safety. Accordingly, the cake ultimately obtained contains a large amount of fluid, i.e., a large amount of residual formic acid. Also when washing the cake with a washing fluid, the efficiency of the washing varies by location depending on the thickness of the cake which results in another problem. On average, such variation causes extremely low washing efficiency when compared with the washing of a uniformly deposited cake. Considering the influence of the residual formic acid on the yield of the condensation reaction, it is a matter of course that the problems mentioned above become significant in cases of the production of α-APM as a final product. On the other hand, when comparing the affinities of the anhydride with various solvent components in the dehydration reaction fluid (formic acid, acetic acid, acetic anhydride, aromatic hydrocarbon), the affinity for formic acid is especially high. Accordingly, the concentration of formic acid in the laminar film of the surface of the anhydride crystal is higher than that in other regions of the reaction fluid. Therefore, in view of reducing the residual formic acid, it is desirable that the fluid is stirred vigorously when conducting the centrifugation to obtain a laminar film as thin as possible prior to the filtration. However, as long as a usual centrifugation method is used, only a gentle fluidization such as through pumping of the suspension is achieved and then the filtration is conducted rapidly without an interval for obtaining a thinner laminar film. Because of the various problems mentioned above, it is impossible to employ the centrifugation to isolate the anhydride, and ordinarily the separation is conducted using a pressurized plate filtration machine. However, such procedure involves complicated operations and is not suitable for large-scale production. Accordingly, in large-scale production, a dehydration reaction not requiring the separation of the anhydride, i.e., a reaction using formic acid in a stoichiometric amount based on aspartic acid should be employed in a practical stage. Problems to be solved by the invention An objective of the present invention is to provide a method of producing N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride and separating the suspension wherein unbalanced anhydride cake deposition is avoided, the safety of the operation and the dehydration capability are enhanced, a uniform deposition of the cake is achieved which leads to an increase in the washing efficiency of the cake washing process, and a centrifugation condition capable of providing a thinner laminar film on the surface of the anhydride crystal just before the filtration is established, thereby obtaining anhydride crystals containing only a small amount of residual formic acid. It is another objective of this invention to establish a process for preparing F-α-AP or F-α-APM having a higher α/β ratio, i.e., at a high yield by means of the reaction of the anhydride crystals with L-phenylalanine or PM. Means to solve the problems Applicant has undertaken much effort to solve the problems described above, and have finally obtained the findings described below. When the anhydride suspension is centrifuged, by supplying the first half amount of the suspension to be supplied at once, which is usually subjected to a low filtration resistance and thus filtrated rapidly, under a back pressure of 1.33 x 10 2 Pa (100 mmHg) or higher, the unbalanced cake deposition can be avoided whereby the cake dehydration rate can be significantly increased, and a uniform thickness of the cake is obtained after the completion of the supply of the remaining suspension whereby the cake washing efficiency significantly is increased. In such a procedure, the back pressure means a higher pressure of the filtrate relative to the suspension to be supplied, and the back pressure value means the difference between the both pressures. In addition, this procedure provides a prolonged residential period of the suspension in an extremely vigorous stirring condition due to the shearing force of the rotating basket, thereby enabling the filtration while avoiding the liquid phase adsorption of formic acid onto the surface of the crystals. It was also found that, by conducting the centrifugation in the condition mentioned above, anhydride crystals containing a small amount of residual formic acid can be obtained, and the crystal can be reacted with L-phenylalanine or PM to produce F-α-AP or F-α-APM at a high yield while suppressing the formation of the β-form as a by-product. We attained the present invention by applying the findings mentioned above to a practical process of the production of the anhydride, by dehydration of the anhydride in the presence of excessive formic acid and subsequent centrifugation, wherein the production loss in a later process due to the formation of the by-product β-form is significantly reduced. Accordingly the present invention provides a method of preparing N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride by reacting L-aspartic acid with acetic anhydride and formic acid in a molar amount of 1.05 times as large as that of aspartic acid or larger, comprising the centrifugation of a suspension of N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride after said reaction, while conducting the following steps: (1) starting to supply said suspension to a separation device under a back pressure of 1.33 x 10 4 Pa (100 mmHg) or higher; (2) releasing said back pressure at the time when half or more of said suspension has already been supplied; and, (3) subsequently filtrating and/or conducting dehydration of the cake while, if necessary, washing the cake. In addition, the present invention provides a method of preparing N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine or N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester wherein the crystals of N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride thus obtained are dissolved or suspended in acetic acid and reacted with L-phenylalanine or L-phenylalanine methyl ester to thereby synthesize N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine. In the separation of the anhydride according to the present invention, formic acid is employed in principle in an amount in excess of aspartic acid in the dehydration reaction. Considering the yield of the dehydration reaction, the molar amount is preferably 1.05 times as large as that of aspartic acid, or larger. A catalyst may also be added in order to increase the yield of the dehydration reaction. An example of such a catalyst is the substance disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application JP-A-59-175484 (= JP-B-4-000986) such as magnesium acetate. When the advantage in the separation of the anhydride mentioned above is desired, the back pressure employed in the present invention is at least 1.33 x 10 4 Pa (100 mmHg) or higher, preferably 4.65 x 10 4 Pa (350 mmHg) or higher, and most preferably 1.01 x 10 5 Pa (760 mmHg) or higher, although it may vary depending on the centrifugal force without the back pressure. While a higher back pressure has a higher effect to inhibit the unbalanced deposition, a much higher pressure causes a much lower rate of filtration which may lead to a reduced performance of the device, and accordingly a pressure of 10.6 x 10 5 Pa (8000 mmHg) or lower is preferable. The back pressure should be applied for a period during which at least a half of the suspension supplied in one separation can be supplied, and it is more preferable to supply the entire suspension under the back pressure. Although it is effective to apply the back pressure continuously for a certain period of time after the supply of the entire suspension, such continuous pressurization may prolong the time period required for one separation cycle and accordingly the optimum period should be determined considering the capacity of the performance of the separation device. The back pressure is applied by, for example, (1) providing a valve in the outlet tube to reduce the flow rate of the filtrate, and (2) providing a device comprising duplicate baskets consisting of an inner and an outer one and a filter between them, in which the filtrate is allowed to flow on the outer basket and the water level of the filtrate when exiting the basket is set to the inside of the plane of the filter. In method (1), when using a vertical centrifuge, the filtrate is allowed to remain in the space between the rotating basket and the outer casing, and the back pressure corresponding to the fluid surface and the fluid column of the valve is applied. In method (2), the basket shown in Figure 1 is employed. The device comprises a filter (a) and tube (b) for skimming the filtrate. During the separation, a back pressure corresponding to the difference in the height (h) between the filter level (a) and the water level (c) of the filtrate is applied. The structure of the separation device having such a basket is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application JP-A-49-88168 (=JP-B-53-21532) and is also commercially available. When this device is employed in the present invention, the back pressure can be adjusted by adjusting the rotation rate of the basket and the insertion depth of the skimming tube. The anhydride may be separated directly by separating the dehydration reaction fluid or after the addition of a solvent capable of reducing the solubility of the anhydride. Such solvent includes aromatic hydrocarbons disclosed in JPA S51-91210 such as toluene and xylene. The anhydride crystals thus obtained are reacted with L-phenylalanine or L-phenylalanine methyl ester (PM) in a solvent which is preferably acetic acid. Typically, the anhydride crystals are dissolved or suspended in acetic acid and then reacted with L-phenylalanine which is in the form of a solid or PM which is dissolved in a solvent such as toluene. Advantages of the invention By the method according to the present invention, the dehydration in the presence of excessive formic acid which is associated with the centrifugation of the anhydride as a step at an industrial scale is possible thereby increasing the dehydration yield, while the anhydride crystals containing a small amount of residual formic acid can be used in the condensation step. By this method the loss due to the formation of the β-form as a by-product in a later step is reduced, thus providing a practically valuable method. Brief description of the drawing Figure 1 shows a sectional view which outlines a centrifuge having a basket structure. In the figure, the letters represent: a: a filter b: a tube for skimming the filtrate c: the water level of the filtrate d: the height between the filter level and the water level of the filtrate. The present invention is further described in detail in the following examples. Examples 1 to 2 A Peeler Centrifuge Model Hz100Si R manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemical which is a centrifuge with a basket structure as shown in Figure 1 (basket diameter: 1000 mm, Filtration area: 1.57 m 2 ) was used to conduct the separation test of a dehydration reaction fluid. The dehydration reaction fluid employed was a suspension obtained by admixing a solution mixture consisting of formic acid and acetic anhydride with magnesium acetate and L-aspartic acid to effect the dehydration reaction followed by the addition of toluene and then by cooling to 5°C. The molar ratio of formic acid to aspartic acid introduced for the reaction was 1.5. The concentrations of N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride, formic acid, acetic acid and toluene in the reaction suspension were 16.0, 3.1, 26.8 and 49.9 % by weight, respectively. The entire volume of the suspension fed in one separation test was set at a constant 200 L, and the fluid was supplied in 50 L aliquots 4 times at the interval of 5 seconds. At the initiation of the fluid supply, a certain back pressure was adjusted by means of selecting the basket rotation rate and the insertion depth of the skimming tube, and the basket rotation rate was adjusted at the highest rate (1400 rpm) at predetermined times after the 0th to 4th fluid supplies while further inserting the skimming tube whereby the back pressure was released prior to the subsequent separation process. After the completion of the separation, the cake was washed with 100 L of toluene, and the rate of formic acid elimination was determined according to Formula 1. Formic acid elimination rate [%]={(formic acid content in cake before washing [wt %] - formic acid content after washing [wt %])/formic acid content in cake before washing (wt %]} x 100 The operational conditions and formic acid elimination rate in the separation tests are given in Table 1. Back pressure [mmHg] Pa Rate of suspension fed under back pressure based on total suspension fed Formic acid elimination [%] Remarks Comparative Example 0 - - Operation impossible due to unbalanced cake Comparative Example (50) 66.6·10 2 Pa 1/2 40 Unbalanced cake Comparative Example (250) 333.2·10 2 Pa 1/4 24 Severely unbalanced cake Example 1 (250) 333.2·10 2 Pa 1/2 75 Example 2 (250) 333.2·10 2 Pa 1 91 Examples 3 to 4 To the solution mixture consisting of formic acid and acetic anhydride, first magnesium acetate was added and then L-aspartic acid was added in such an amount that the molar ratio of formic acid and aspartic acid was 1.3:1, whereby effecting the dehydration reaction. The concentrations of N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride, formic acid and acetic acid in the reaction suspension after completion of the reaction were 32.7, 4.2 and 54.8 % by weight, respectively. 150 L aliquots of this reaction suspension were separated by the two methods described below and each 100 L of acetic acid was used to wash the cake, whereby obtaining wet crystals of N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride. (1) Separation device: Peeler Centrifuge Model Hz100Si manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemical (Basket diameter: 1000 mm, Filtration area: 1.57 m 2 ) Condition: By adjusting the insertion depth of the skimming tube, 80 L of the suspension, which is about half of the entire suspension, was fed under a back pressure of 800 mmHg. Subsequently, the back pressure was released, and then the remaining suspension was fed prior to the cake washing followed by dehydration. (2) Separation device: Top discharge vertical centrifuge (basket diameter: 1070 mm; filtration area: 1.38 m 2 ) Condition: In an attempt to avoid the unbalanced cake deposition, 30 L of the suspension was initially fed at a low rotation rate, but the suspension was filtrated only at the bottom of the basket. Then the remaining suspension was fed while manually adjusting the basket rotation rate within the range of from a low to a high rate. Nevertheless, the unbalance of the cake could not be avoided, and the dehydration after the cake washing could be conducted only at a rotation rate of as low as 1/4 of the maximum rotation rate. The content of formic acid in the wet crystals obtained in each of methods (1) and (2) was determined and the results are shown in Table 2. The wet crystals thus obtained were then suspended in acetic acid and heated at 45°C, and L-phenylalanine in an equal molar amount relative to N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride in the suspension was added to conduct the condensation reaction. The contents of N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine and N-formyl-β-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine in the reaction fluid after the reaction were determined by HPLC, and the production ratio (α/β ratio) was calculated. The results are shown in Table 2. The wet crystals were suspended again in acetic acid and kept at 25°C, and a solution of L-phenylalanine methyl ester in toluene was added in a molar amount of 0.97 relative to N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride to effect the condensation reaction. The contents of N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester and N-formyl-β-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester in the reaction fluid after the reaction were determined by HPLC, and the production ratio (α/β ratio) was calculated. The results are shown in Table 2. Formic acid content in wet crystal [wt%] Example 3 α/β ratio [-] Example 4 α/β ratio [-] (1) 0.16 2.42 5.10 (2) 1.53 1.58 4.31

Claims: A method of preparing N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride by reacting L-aspartic acid with acetic anhydride and formic acid with a molar excess of formic acid of 1.05 times the amount of aspartic acid or more, said method comprising the centrifugation of the suspension of N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride after said reaction in the presence or absence of an aromatic hydrocarbon while conducting the following steps: (1) starting to supply said suspension to a centrifugation device under a back pressure of 1.33 x 10 4 Pa (100 mmHg) or higher; (2) releasing said back pressure at the time point when at least half or more of said suspension has already been supplied; and, (3) subsequently filtrating and/or dehydrating the cake while washing the cake if necessary. A method of preparing N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine comprising the method of claim 1 and the following step: (4) Dissolving or suspending the obtained crystals of N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride in acetic acid and reacting them with L-phenylalanine. A method of preparing N-formyl-α-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester comprising the method of claim 1 and the following step: (4) Dissolving or suspending the obtained crystals of N-formyl-L-aspartic anhydride in acetic acid and reacting them with L-phenylalanine methyl ester. A method according to any of the Claims 1, 2 and 3 wherein said aromatic hydrocarbon is at least one selected from the group consisting of benzene, toluene, xylene or mixtures thereof. A method according to any of Claims 1 to 4 wherein said back pressure in step (1) is 4.66 x 10 4 Pa (350 mmHg) or higher. A method according to any of Claims 1 to 4 wherein said back pressure in step (1) is 1.03 x 10 5 Pa (760 mmHg) or higher. A method according to any of Claims 1 to 6 wherein said back pressure is released in step (2) after completion of the supply of the entire amount of said suspension. A method according to any of Claims 1 to 7 wherein a solution mixture of at least one of the hydrocarbons added before separation and acetic acid is used as a washing fluid to wash said cake in step (3).

Inventors: KATAOKA TAKEHIKO, KISHIMOTO SHINICHI, SATO OSAHIRO, KATAOKA, TAKEHIKO, KISHIMOTO, SHINICHI, SATO, OSAHIRO, Kataoka, Takehiko, c/o Central Res. Lab., Kishimoto, Shinichi, c/o Central Res. Lab., Sato, Osahiro, c/o Central Res. Lab.
Applicants: AJINOMOTO KK, AJINOMOTO CO., INC.
Application year: 1995
Main classification: C07D307
IPC codes: C07K5, C07D307, C07K1