N-Alkyl barbiturates. A series of compounds for the study of metabolic structure-activity relationships.

Many therapeutic agents are metabolised along multiple pathways, but up to now there have been few investigations addressing the question of which chemical features of drugs govern the participation in, and quantitative significance of, different biotransformation pathways. To assess the influence of variations of the chemical structure upon metabolism, a series of novel barbiturate analogues has been synthesized. The N1-monoalkylated and N1,N2-dialkylated phenobarbitones and 2-desoxyphenobarbitones have been synthesized via condensation of ethylphenylmalonic acid derivatives with different N-alkylated ureas or thioureas, and/or by base-catalyzed N-alkylation of different barbituric acids.