Probing the Diastereotopicity of Methylene Protons in Strychnine Using Residual Dipolar Couplings

Residual dipolar couplings were successfully used to distinguish between the two diastereotopic protons on C-20 of strychnine dissolved in an organic liquid crystal (PBLG/CDCl₃). The results presented here strongly suggest that this method will be of help in organic structure determination, making the determination of relative stereochemistry in the absence of NOE data possible.