A quick note here on the use of computed NMR to determine stereochemical structure. The Garg group synthesized two “oxidized welwitindolines”, compounds 1 and 2.1 The relative stereochemistry at the C3 position (the carbon with the hydroxy group) was unknown.

1

2
Low energy gas-phase conformers of both epimers of 1 and 2 were optimized at B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p). (These computations were done by the Tantillo group.) See Figure 1 for the optimized lowest energy conformers. Using these geometries the NMR chemical shifts were computed at mPW1PW91/6-311+G(d,p) with implicit solvent (chloroform). The chemical shifts were Boltzmann-weighted and scaled according to the prescription (see this post) of Jain, Bally and Rablen.2 The computed chemical shifts were then compared against the experimental NMR spectra. For both 1and 2, the 13C NMR shifts could not readily distinguish the two epimers. However, the computed 1H chemical shifts for the S epimer of each compound was significantly in better agreement with the experimental values; the mean average deviation for the S epimer of 2 is 0.08 ppm but 0.36ppm for the R epimer. As a check of these results, DP4 analysis3 (see this post) of 2 indicated a 100% probability for the S epimer using only the proton chemical shifts or with the combination of proton and carbon data.

1

2
Figure 1. B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) optimized geometries of the
lowest energy conformations of 1 and 2.

References

(1) Quasdorf, K. W.; Huters, A. D.; Lodewyk, M. W.; Tantillo, D. J.; Garg, N. K., "Total Synthesis of Oxidized Welwitindolinones and (-)-N-Methylwelwitindolinone C Isonitrile," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011,134, 1396-1399, DOI: 10.1021/ja210837b
(2) Jain, R.; Bally, T.; Rablen, P. R., "Calculating Accurate Proton Chemical Shifts of Organic Molecules with Density Functional Methods and Modest Basis Sets," J. Org. Chem. 2009, 74, 4017-4023, DOI: 10.1021/jo900482q.
(3) Smith, S. G.; Goodman, J. M., "Assigning Stereochemistry to Single Diastereoisomers by GIAO NMR Calculation: The DP4 Probability," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 12946-12959, DOI:10.1021/ja105035r