Quinone methide

A quinone methide is a type of conjugated organic compound that contain a cyclohexadiene with a carbonyl and an exocyclic methylidene or extended alkene unit. It is analogous to a quinone, but having one of the double bonded oxygens replaced with a carbon. The carbonyl and methylidene are usually oriented either ortho or para to each other. There are some examples of transient synthetic meta quinone methides.

Quinone methides are cross-conjugated rather than aromatic. Nucleophilic addition at the exo-cyclic double bond will result in rearomatisation, making such reactions highly favourable. As a result, quinone methides are excellent, electrophilic Michael acceptors, react quickly with nucleophiles and can be easily reduced. They are able to act as radical scavengers via a similar process, a behaviour exploited by certain polymerisation inhibitors. Quinone methides are more polar than quinones, and therefore more chemically reactive. Simple unhindered quinone methides are short lived reactive intermediates that are not stable enough to be isolated under normal circumstances, they will trimerise in the absence of nucleophiles. Sterically hindered quinone methides can be sufficiently stable to be isolated, with some examples being commercially available.

Quinone methides are often prepared by oxidation of the corresponding ortho or para cresol.

Quinone methides can be produced in aqueous solution by photochemical dehydration of o-hydroxybenzyl alcohols (i.e. salicyl alcohol).

Quinones methides are commonly invoked in biochemistry, but are rarely observed as long-lived intermediates.

Quinone methide itself arises by the degradation of tyrosine, leading ultimately to p-cresol. Various quinone methides are directly involved in the process of lignification (creation of complex lignin polymers) in plants.

Quinone methides have been implicated as the ultimate cytotoxins responsible for the effects of such agents as antitumor drugs, antibiotics, and DNA alkylators. Oxidation to a reactive quinone methide is the mechanistic basis of many phenolic anti-cancer drugs.

Celastrol is a triterpenoid quinone methide isolated from Tripterygium wilfordii (Thunder of God vine) and Celastrus regelii that exhibits antioxidant (15 times the potency of α-tocopherol), anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and insecticidal activities.