Polysaccharides of Saponin-Bearing PLANTS. XII. Polysaccharides of Acantophyllum knorringianum and Their Biological Activity

The physicochemical properties and qualitative and quantitative monosaccharide composition of Acantophyllum knorringianum pectin were determined. It has been found using periodate-nitric-acid oxidation and IR spectroscopy that galacturonan is a polymer consisting of -1-4-bonded D-galacturonic acid units. The isolated polysaccharide from roots had immunostimulating activity.     

Solution- and bound-state conformational study of N,N',N"-triacetyl chitotriose and other analogous potential inhibitors of hevamine: application of trNOESY and STD NMR spectroscopy

The solution-state conformations of N,N',N"-triacetyl chitotriose (1) and other potential chitinase inhibitors 2-4 were studied using a combination of NMR spectroscopy (NOESY) and molecular mechanics calculations. Determination solely of the global energy minimum conformation was found to be insufficient for an agreement with the NMR results. An appropriate consistency between the NMR experimental data and theoretical calculations was only reached by assessing the structures as population-weighted average conformers based on Boltzmann distributions derived from the calculated relative energies. Analogies, but also particular differences, between the synthetic compounds 2-4 and the naturally-occurring N,N',N"-triacetyl chitotriose were found. Furthermore, the conformation of compounds 1 and 2 when bound to hevamine was also studied using transferred NOESY experiments and the binding process was found to impart a level of conformational restriction on the ligands. The preferred conformation as determined for 1 in the bound state to hevamine belonged to one of the conformational families found for the compound when free in solution, although full characterisation of the bound-state conformations was impeded due to severe signal overlap. Saturation transfer difference NMR experiments were also employed to analyse the binding epitopes of the bound compounds. We thus determined that it is mainly the acetyl amido groups of the trisaccharide and the heterocyclic moiety which are in close contact with hevamine.     

From D-glucose to biologically potent L-hexose derivatives: synthesis of alpha-L-iduronidase fluorogenic detector and the disaccharide moieties of bleomycin A2 and heparan sulfate

A novel and convenient route for the synthesis of biologically potent and rare L-hexose derivatives from D-glucose is described. Conversion of diacetone-alpha-D-glucose (14) into 1,2:3,5-di-O-isopropylidene-beta-L-idofuranose (19) was efficiently carried out in two steps. Orthogonal isopropylidene rearrangement of compound 19 led to 1,2:5,6-di-O-isopropylidene-beta-L-idofuranose (27), which underwent regioselective epimerization at the C3 position to give the L-talo- and 3-functionalized L-idofuranosyl derivatives. Hydrolysis of compound 19 under acidic conditions furnished 1,6-anhydro-beta-L-idopyranose (35) in excellent yield, which was successfully transformed into the corresponding L-allo, L-altro, L-gulo, and L-ido derivatives via regioselective benzylation, benzoylation, triflation and nucleophilic substitution as the key steps. Applications of these 1,6-anhydro-beta-L-hexopyranoses as valuable building blocks to the syntheses of 4-methylcoumarin-7-yl-alpha-L-iduronic acid and the disaccharide moieties of bleomycin A(2) as well as heparan sulfate are highlighted.     

Synthesis and conformational analysis of novel N(OCH3)-linked disaccharide analogues

N(OMe)-linked disaccharide analogues, isosteric to the corresponding natural disaccharides, have been synthesized by chemoselective assembly of unprotected natural monosaccharides with methyl 6-deoxy-6-methoxyamino-alpha-D-glucopyranoside in an aqueous environment. The coupling reactions were found to be chemo- and stereoselective affording beta-(1-->6) disaccharide mimics when using Glc and GlcNAc; in the case of Gal, the beta-anomer was prevalent (beta:alpha=7:1). An iterative method for the synthesis of linear N(OMe) oligosaccharide analogues was demonstrated, based on the use of an unprotected monosaccharide building block in which an oxime functionality at C-6 is converted during the synthesis into the corresponding methoxyamino group. The conformational analysis of these compounds was carried out by using NMR spectroscopy, ab initio, molecular mechanics, and molecular dynamics methods. Optimized geometries and energies of fourteen conformers for each compound have been calculated at the B3LYP/6-31G* level. Predicted conformational equilibria were compared with the results based on NMR experiments and good agreement was found. It appears that N(OMe)-linked disaccharide analogues exhibit a slightly different conformational behavior to their parent natural disaccharides.     

Glycolipids from Leaves of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Eminium Lehmanii</Emphasis>

The quantitative composition of glycolipids from leaves of Eminium Lehmanii (Araceae) was established. It was shown that the predominant glycolipids were monogalactosyldiglycerides and digalactosyldiglycerides. The fatty-acid compositions of six glycolipids, of which digalactosyldiglycerides and sterylglycoside esters contained greater than 70% linoleic acid, were determined by GC. The main carbohydrate component of the leaf glycolipids was galactose. __________ Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 5, pp. 409–410, September–October, 2005.