Applied Chemistry, Vol.1, No.1, 99-102, May, 1997
Novel Pseudoceramides and Their Synthesis Using Alkyl Ketene Dimer
Nowadays, ceramides have been found to be an important component in the outermost layer of the skin - the stratum corneum (SC). It is understood that ceramides play an important role in structure and maintenance of the intercellular lipid lamella structure in the SC layer. Thus, many efforts have been made by the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries to get human skin-identical ceramides or pseudoceramides which show similar performance with natural ceramides. The propose of our study was to synthesize new pseudoceramides via an effective and economical synthetic pathway and to show their performance of skin restoration. Four kinds of the new pseudoceramides (PC-4, PC-4R, PC-5, PC-5R) were synthesized by the reaction of alcoholic amino and alkyl ketene dimer. First of all, PC-4 and PC-5 were synthesized by the reaction of 3-amino- 1,2-propandiol and serinol with alkyl ketene dimer respectively. After that, PC-4R and PC-5R were produced by changing ketone group at β-position to amide bond of above synthesized PC-4 and PC-5 into hydroxyl group using NaBH4 respectively. Their expected structures were conformed by the NMR, IR spectra, and elemental analysis.