Synthesis and Structure-Chirality Relationship Analysis of Steroidal Quinoxalines to Design and Develop New Chiral Drugs

Of the utmost importance of chirality in organic compounds and drugs, the present work reports structure-chirality relationship of three steroidal quinoxalines, which were synthesised by condensing diaminobenzenes with cholestenone. All the compounds were purified and characterised by varying analytical tools prior to their chiroptical analysis by circular dichroism (CD) technique. The substituent groups on quinoxalines contributed to determining the chiroptical properties of the compounds. The positive Cotton effects have been observed in the CD spectra of unsubstituted and methyl-substituted quinoxalines, which indicated their P helicity. Importantly, chloro-substituent on quinoxalines produced different CD behaviour, which can be attributed to the presence of three lone pairs of electrons on Cl atom. The present work provides guidelines for determining the chiral properties of steroidal quinoxalines, which can be useful to design and develop potential molecules of biological importance.