Kinetics Study on Reaction between Dihydroartemisinic Acid and Singlet Oxygen: An Essential Step to Photochemical Synthesis of Artemisinin

Artemisinin is an excellent antimalarial drug widely used in clinical medicine. However, due to the limitation of natural source of artemisinin, the chemical synthesis of artemisinin has achieved substantial attention. Dihydroartemisinic acid is a key precursor for the synthesis of artemisinin. The reaction of dihydroartemisinic acid with singlet oxygen to form peroxide is a pivotal step in the photochemical preparation of artemisinin. Nevertheless, the reaction kinetics of dihydroartemisinic acid with singlet oxygen has not been investigated previously. Herein, we report the rate constants of the reaction between dihydroartemisinic acid and singlet oxygen. By directly detecting the luminescence decay kinetics of singlet oxygen at 1270 nm at room temperature, the reaction rate constants of singlet oxygen and dihydroartemisinic acid in different solvents are obtained to be 1.81\times10^5 (mol/L)^-1·s^-1 in CCl_4, 5.69\times10^5 (mol/L)^-1·s^-1 in CH_3CN, and 3.27\times10^6 (mol/L)^-1·s^-1 in DMSO, respectively. It is found that the reaction rate constants of dihydroartemisinic acid with singlet oxygen increase as polarity of the solvent increases among the three solvents. These results provide fundamental knowledge to optimize experiment conditions of photochemical synthesis of artemisinin for improving the yields of artemisinin.