NMR Structure Elucidation of Natural Products and Synthesized Compounds in Nigeria

https://doi.org/10.26538/tjnpr/v1i4.1

Abstract

Structure elucidation using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) is one of the greatest milestones of spectroscopy. NMR is
matchless in the elucidation and confirmation of structures of organic compounds. The chemical shifts of the protons and carbons in the structure reveal a lot about chemical environments and reactivity as well as exploitable properties of the compounds. Although NMR has certain weaknesses such as poor sensitivity compared to mass spectrometry, UV and IR spectrophotometry, it is nevertheless most informative in terms of structure and chemical properties of compounds. NMR requires a high concentration of material for a good spectrum and even a higher concentration for the advanced experiments such as 2D COSY, TOCSY, HMBC, INADEQUATE, HSQC and NOESY. The information and structural properties that could be obtained from these advanced experiments are priceless. A proper use of a compound’s NMR data will reveal the structure of the compound under investigation and confirm its identity to a known compound or similarity to a known compound or class of compounds or its novelty. The desire for novelty or newness of a structure is one of the main aims of isolating and synthesizing compounds but proof of this can only come from the proper acquisition and interpretation of a compound’s NMR data. It is also this desperation to obtain a new compound that drives many to propose and publish structures that are hardly supported by the NMR data or decipherable from the published data.