Carbon-13 nmr shifts and C—H coupling constants of deoxybenzoins and related acetophenones

13C Chemical shifts and resolved carbon–proton couplings of 39 deoxybenzoins and 11 acetophenones, most of which have naturally occurring substitution patterns, are assigned. Individual benzene rings turned out to have typical parameters not affected by structural variations in the rest of the molecule. Due to substitutional saturation, however, these benzenoid carbon shifts markedly deviate from increment additivity. A few trends of these deviations are described. Phenolic hydrogens, fixed between hydroxyl and carbonyl oxygen due to internal hydrogen bonding, are shown to give rise to additional carbon-splittings.