Calculation of the minimum energy conformation of acetylcholine using a global optimization technique

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Abstract
The conformational energy of acetylcholine is minimized with respect to the distances between nonbonded atoms with the help of the Bremermann method of unconstrained global optimization. The set of distances for which the energy is the absolute minimum is then used to calculate the coordinates of all the atoms and hence the conformation of the molecule. The simplest type of potential function, namely the classical potential function is chosen for the calculation. The major advantages of this method are (i) that the starting point need not be close to the actual solution, (ii) that it gives the global minimum, irrespective of the starting point, (iii) that it is very general and can be used for any type of potential function, and (iv) that it does not require the computation of gradients. The results obtained are in very good agreement with those of other workers.