Bio-inspired flavonol and quinolone dioxygenation by a non-heme iron catalyst modeling the action of flavonol and 3-hydroxy-4(1H)-quinolone 2,4-dioxygenases.

The mononuclear complex, Fe(III)(O-bs)(salen) (salenH(2)=1,6-bis(2-hydroxyphenyl)-2,5-diaza-hexa-1,5-diene; O-bsH=O-benzoylsalicylic acid) was synthesized as synthetic enzyme-depside complex, and characterized by spectroscopic methods and X-ray crystal analysis. The dioxygenation of flavonol (flaH) and 3-hydroxy-4-quinolone (quinH(2)) derivatives in the presence of catalytic amounts of Fe(III)(O-bs)(salen) results in the oxidative cleavage of the heterocyclic ring to give the corresponding O-benzoylsalicylic and anthranilic acid derivatives with concomitant release of carbon monoxide. These reactions can be regarded as biomimetic functional models with relevance to the iron-containing flavonol and the cofactor-independent 3-hydroxy-4(1H)-quinolone 2,4-dioxygenases.