Photochemical Rearrangements of Chiral Bicyclo[2.2.2]oct-5-en-2-Ones1

Photochemical oxadi-π-methane rearrangement (1,2-acyl shift) of the chiral bicyclo[2.2.2]oct-5-en-2-ones 2 and 3 furnishes the tricyclic ketones 5 and 6 , whereas the 1,3-acyl shift generates the cyclobutanones 7 and 8 respectively.     

Efficient Approach to 4‐Benzyl‐5,5‐dimethyldihydrofuranones: Total Synthesis of (±_bold;)‐Solafuranone

A six‐step general and very efficient synthesis of 4‐(arylmethyl)‐5,5‐dialkyldihydrofuranones starting from corresponding aryl aldehyde has been developed. Solafuranone, a novel furanone isolated from the Chinese folk medicine Solanum indicum, has been accomplished starting from 2,6‐dimethylbenzaldehyde in six steps in an overall yield of 70%. Contrary to expectations, solafuranone and its analogue failed to exhibit any significant cytotoxicity against A549 (lung adenocarcinoma) and HL60 (leukemia cells) cell lines.     

Enantiospecific synthesis of angular triquinanes

The enantiospecific synthesis of angular triquinanes has been developed starting from the readily available (S)-campholenaldehyde. Two alternate strategies have been used, one employing a Johnson’s orthoester Claisen rearrangement followed by an intramolecular cyclopropanation and regioselective cyclopropane ring cleavage, and a second one based on a RCM reaction.     

Enantiospecific first total synthesis and confirmation of the relative and absolute stereostructure of isocalamusenone

The enantiospecific total synthesis of two epimers of the sesquiterpene isocalamusenone has been accomplished starting from the readily available monoterpene (R)-limonene, which of the natural product established the stereostructure and the absolute configuration.     

An Efficient One‐pot Three‐component Method for the Synthesis of 5‐Amino‐3‐(2‐oxo‐2H‐chromen‐3‐yl)‐7‐aryl‐7H‐thiazolo[3,2‐a]pyridine‐6,8‐dicarbonitriles

A facile, convenient, and adequate method has been developed for the synthesis of novel 5‐amino‐3‐(2‐oxo‐2H‐chromen‐3‐yl)‐7‐aryl‐7H‐thiazolo[3,2‐a]pyridine‐6,8‐dicarbonitriles ( 6 ) by employing 2‐(4‐(2‐oxo‐2H‐chromen‐3‐yl)thiazol‐2‐yl)acetonitrile ( 3 ) as an important precursor. Initially, we have synthesized the target compounds in a stepwise manner and then approached a tandem method to examine the feasibility of one‐pot method. Subsequently, one‐pot three‐component protocol has been established for the synthesis of title compounds by the reaction of 3 with benzaldehyde and malononitrile in refluxing ethanol engender a new six‐membered thiazolo[3,2‐a] pyridine as a hybrid scaffold. Reaction conditions were optimized for this reaction and a broad substrate scope with various aryl and heteroaryl aldehydes make this protocol very practical, attractive, and worthy. Mechanistic aspects for the formation of these compounds were outlined comprehensively. Characterization of these newly synthesized compounds was achieved by means of IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and HRMS.     

An efficient one-pot three-component synthesis of 2-(4-(2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yl)thiazol-2-yl)-3-arylacrylonitriles and their cytotoxic activity evaluation with molecular docking

A facile, convenient and one-pot three-component method has been outlined for the synthesis of title compounds by treating equimolar amounts of 3-(2-bromoacetyl)-2H-chromen-2-one (2) with 2-cyanothioacetamide (3) and various aryl/heteryl aldehydes (5 or 7) independently. The effect of solvent and catalyst on this one-pot reaction has been studied and the use of l-proline in ethanol was found to be effective to achieve the target compounds (6 & 8) in fair yields. These synthesized compounds were further assessed for the anti-hepatoma activity, and their action mechanism was also investigated by using molecular docking studies. All the compounds 6(a-h) & 8(a-f) manifested excellent potency for anti-hepatoma activity. It should be noted that, compounds 6e, 6f have exhibited almost equipotent activity with reference to standard drug Nexavar.     

An unusual synthesis of 3-(2-(arylamino)thiazol-4-yl)-2H-chromen-2-ones from ethyl 2-(chloromethyl)-2-hydroxy-2H-chromene-3-carboxylate via benzopyran ring opening

An unusual and unexpected synthesis of 3-(2-(arylamino)thiazol-4-yl)-2H-chromen-2-ones has been observed by the reaction of ethyl 2-(chloromethyl)-2-hydroxy-2H-chromene-3-carboxylate with various arylthioureas in ethanol under mild reaction conditions with excellent yields. The ambiguity in the structure of the obtained products has been solved by recording its single-crystal X-ray analysis. This protocol has been found to be a novel approach for the preparation of title compounds via benzopyran ring opening. A systematic plausible mechanism has been proposed for the formation of the product. Also, an efficient one-pot three-component method has been demonstrated for the formation of title compounds starting from salicylaldehyde.

     

Finding minimum energy configurations for constrained beam buckling problems using the Viterbi algorithm

In this work, we present a novel technique to find approximate minimum energy configurations for thin elastic bodies using an instance of dynamic programming called the Viterbi algorithm. This method can be used to find approximate solutions for large deformation constrained buckling problems as well as problems where the strain energy function is non-convex. The approach does not require any gradient computations and could be considered a direct search method. The key idea is to consider a discretized version of the set of all possible configurations and use a computationally efficient search technique to find the minimum energy configuration. We illustrate the application of this method to a laterally constrained beam buckling problem where the presence of unilateral constraints together with the non-convexity of the energy function poses challenges for conventional schemes. The method can also be used as a means for generating “very good” starting points for other conventional gradient search algorithms. These uses, along with comparisons with a direct application of a gradient search and simulated annealing, are demonstrated in this work.     

Enantiospecific synthesis and confirmation of the relative and absolute stereostructure of 11-hydroxyguaiadienes

Enantiospecific total synthesis of two epimeric sesquiterpenes 11-hydroxyguaiadienes has been accomplished starting from the readily available monoterpene (R)-limonene, which confirmed the structure and absolute configuration of the natural products.