On the reactivity of ascomycin at the binding domain. Part 2: Hydroxide mediated rearrangement reactions

The natural product ascomycin represents a highly functionalised 23-membered macrocycle with a polyketide backbone. Within the binding domain, ascomycin features the unusual pattern of a masked tricarbonyl moiety, which potentially allows for high structural diversity via simple isomerisation events. Herein, highly stereoselective, hydroxide mediated rearrangement reactions at the binding domain are reported.     

On the reactivity of ascomycin at the binding domain. Part 3: Reactivity of the binding domain towards diazomethane

A thorough product analysis of the reaction of ascomycin with diazomethane has been performed. Apart from the expected oxiranes (epimeric at C9), a whole range of novel derivatives bearing various modifications in the binding domain were obtained. Proposed mechanisms for their formation and stereochemical aspects are discussed.     

On the reactivity of ascomycin at the binding domain. Part 1: Liberation of the tricarbonyl portion of ascomycin

Within the binding domain, ascomycin features the unusual pattern of a masked tricarbonyl moiety, which potentially allows for high structural diversity via simple isomerisation events. Herein, methodologies, allowing the liberation of the tricarbonyl unit by blocking the 14-hydroxy group are reported.     

Selective catalytic transformation of polystyrene into ethylbenzene over Fe-Cu-Co/Alumina

FeCuCo over aluminum oxide catalyst was prepared to catalytically degrade polystyrene (PS) into ethylbenzene (EB) under mild conditions. This catalyst was characterized by XRD, SEM, STEM-EELS, STEM-EDS, XPS, and physical properties. A significant selectivity toward EB formation at 250 °C was achieved in the absence of hydrogen with 82% liquid yield. End-chain session and cross-linking reactions are proposed to be the dominant pathways in the degradation of PS over FeCuCo to form EB.     

Synthetic studies towards zetekitoxin AB: preparation of 4,5-epi-11-hydroxy-saxitoxinol

A concise synthesis of 4,5-epi-11-hydroxy-saxitoxinol utilizing d-ribose to direct an asymmetric Mannich reaction. This approach allows many modes of reactivity, which can be used to access various analogs of saxitoxin.     

Vilsmeier-Haack reagent: An efficient reagent for the transformation of substituted 1,3-naphthoxazines into xanthene-type dyes

Derivatives of 1,3-naphthoxazines containing from five to seven-membered spiro ring – under Vilsmeier–Haack reaction conditions are rearranged into novel xanthene-type compounds. All synthesized aminochromene derivatives fluoresce in organic solvents with extra large Stokes shifts (100–133?nm). It was found that compounds containing five-membered annulated aliphatic rings in methanol solution have the best spectral characteristics. These compounds have moderate quantum yields of 28.36–28.94%, and extra large Stokes shifts 106 and 115?nm.     

A synthesis of 17-epi-calcidiol

The first synthetic approach to 17-epi-calcidiol 4 and congeners is presented. Key steps of the synthesis involve Pd-catalyzed reaction of the androst-16-ene derivative 6 with alkyl diazoacetates producing the respective cyclopropane derivatives 5, and lithium in liquid ammonia reduction of 5 leading to 17α-pregnane-20-carboxylic acid derivatives 9. The side chain was attached to ester 19 in a known manner.     

Selective transformation of light olefins into aromatic hydrocarbons over pentasil zeolites

1-Pentene and 1-hexene transformation into aromatic hydrocarbons over H-ZSM-5, H-ZBS-11 and H-ZSM-11 modified with Zn(II), Ga(III), Mn(II) and Fe(III) has been studied. Aluminosilicate zeolites exhibited higher activity than borosilicate zeolites. Zn-species are effective in dehydrogenation, generating allylic intermediates from olefins used as feed.     

Selective photochemical cleavage of an α-ketoamide in a highly functionalised macrolide ascomycin

A novel photochemical amide cleavage reaction of (6S)-methoxyascomycin opening a pathway for the selective cleavage of the pipecolic acid, is described. The scope of this reaction with several analogues carrying suitable protecting groups is examined.     

Selective ethane conversion into aromatic hydrocarbons over Zn-ZSM-11 zeolite

The conversion of ethane into aromatic compounds at 550°C and atmospheric pressure over Zn-ZSM-11 zeolite (Si/Al=17; 2.5 wt.% of Zn as counter ion) has been studied in a flow reactor at different partial pressures of ethane. The observed products at different ethane conversion levels were formed through a variety of processes including ethane dehydrogenation, producing ethylene as the only primary unstable product. Ethylene underwent very rapid reactions through carbenium ion intermediates, producing aromatic hydrocarbons and C1-C4 hydrocarbons as secondary products.     

Studies into the Diels-Alder reactions of 5-trimethylsilylthebaine

The introduction of a 5-trimethylsilyl group on the least hindered face of the diene thebaine was anticipated to favor attack by dienophiles from the alternate face, but only gave rise to a rearrangement product when treated with 3-butene-2-one at 110 °C. Reaction with the more reactive benzoquinone at lower temperature gave rise to a very slow reaction from the same face as the silyl group, indicating that a trimethylsilyl group does not sufficiently hinder this face to achieve reaction at the other face.     

Total syntheses of 28,29-diepi-arenamide A, 29-epi-arenamide A, and 28-epi-arenamide A

This communication describes the synthesis of stereochemical analogs of arenamide A, a 19-membered cytotoxic depsipeptide isolated from the fermentation broth of a marine bacterial strain Salinispora arenicola. The key steps are diastereoselective aldol reaction, Mitsunobu reaction, and HATU mediated macrolactamization.     

Evaluation of two chelators for labelling a PNA monomer with the fac-[Tc(CO)3] moiety

A PNA monomer containing thymine as nucleobase (1) was synthesized, characterized and coupled to the pyrazolyl containing ligand 3,5-Me₂pz(CH₂)₂N((CH₂)₃COOH)(CH₂)₂NHBoc (2) and to a modified cysteine S-(carboxymethyl-pentafluorphenyl)-N-[(trifluor)carbonyl]-l-cysteine methyl ester (3) yielding the bifunctional chelators 6 and 7, respectively. Reactions of 6 and 7 with the Re(I) tricarbonyl starting material [Re(CO)₃(H₂O)₃]Br afforded the complexes fac-[Re(CO)₃(κ³-6)]⁺ (8) and fac-[Re(CO)₃(κ³-7)] (9), respectively. The identity of 8 and 9 has been established based on IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, ESI-MS spectrometry and HPLC. The multinuclear NMR spectroscopy (¹H, ¹³C, g-COSY, g-HSQC) has also been very informative in the case of complex 8, showing the presence of rotamers in solution. For 9 the NMR spectrum was too complex due to the presence of rotamers and diastereoisomers. The radioactive congeners of complexes 8 and 9, fac-[^99mTc(CO)₃(κ³-6)]⁺ (8a) and fac-[^99mTc(CO)³(κ³-7)] (9a), have been prepared by reacting the precursor fac-[^99mTc(CO)₃(H₂O)₃]⁺ with the corresponding ligands being their identity established by comparing their HPLC chromatograms with the HPLC of the rhenium surrogates.     

Syntheses of (±)-9-epi-hederacine A and (±)-9-epi-hederacine B

Racemic syntheses of 9-epi-hederacine A and 9-epi-hederacine B have been achieved. Key transformations include a transannular hemiaminal formation for construction of the azabicyclo[3.2.1]octane core fused to a cyclopentane ring.     

Bismuth triflate-catalyzed rearrangement of acetates of the Baylis-Hillman adducts into (E)-trisubstituted alkenes

In the presence of a catalytic amount of bismuth triflate, methyl 3-acetoxy-3-aryl-2-methylenepropanoates and 3-acetoxy-3-aryl-2-methylenepropanitriles were smoothly converted into methyl (2E)-2-(acetoxymethyl)-3-arylprop-2-enoates and (2E)-2-(acetoxymethyl)-3-arylprop-2-enenitriles, respectively. A remarkable reversal in stereochemical directions from ester to nitrile was observed. 3-Aryl-3-hydroxy-2-methylenepropanoates and 3-aryl-3-hydroxy-2-methylenepropanitriles could be easily obtained as Baylis-Hillman adducts from methyl acrylate and acrylonitrile, respectively. The overall process is an efficient isomerization of the Baylis-Hillman adducts to the corresponding cinnamyl derivatives. The isomerization reaction proceeded rapidly and afforded smoothly the cinnamyl acetates in moderate to very good yields using catalytic amounts of Bi(OTf)₃·4H₂O (10 mol %).     

Selective sensing of Cu2+ ion by naphthalene based Schiff base

Research is going on to synthesize materials for acting as sensors of metal ions and are also published in different journals but the cause for sensing has not been clearly explained. In this paper, the reason for selective sensing of Cu²⁺ ions has been explained. A novel Schiff base fluorescent probe 3-[(2-hydroxy-naphthalen-1-ylmethylene)-hydrazono]-butan-2-one oxime (NPTH) was designed and synthesized to use as Cu²⁺ sensor. From our recent experiments, it has been found that only Cu²⁺ among different metal ions has been sensed by the synthesized ligand. The reason for selection and sensing of Cu²⁺ by the ligand was established by different spectroscopic techniques. The detection limit of NPTH was calculated as low as 4.11 ​× ​10^-4M for Cu²⁺. Therefore, these results indicate that sensor NPTH has great prospective to detect Cu²⁺ ion in environmental analysis systems. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been done to ascertain the ground state geometry of NPTH.     

Iodocyclisations reactions of Boc- and Cbz-protected N-allylguanidines

The cyclisation of mono-protected and bis-protected guanidines 8a–j under standard iodocyclisation conditions (I₂/K₂CO₃) gave the guanidine heterocycles 9–25 via either a direct cyclisation or by a cyclisation/ring-contraction process, which could be controlled by careful selection of conditions.     

Synthetic studies of stereocalpin A and its C5-epimer: total synthesis of 11-epi- and 5,11-diepi-stereocalpin A

This Letter describes the synthetic studies of stereocalpin A and its C5-epimer. After various cyclization attempts, successful macrolactamization at 9-10 position was tried inorder to obtain stereocalpin A and its C5-epimer, which were accompanied by complete racemization and resulted in the synthesis of 11-epi- and 5,11-diepi-stereocalpin A. Highly functionalized octanoic acid motif of the depsipeptide was constructed by applying Paterson’s aldol methodology, owing to its diversity in synthesizing various analogs of aliphatic acid.     

Copper-catalyzed rearrangement of oximes into primary amides

The atom-efficient and cost-effective rearrangement of oximes into primary amides is catalyzed by simple copper salts. The use of homogeneous Cu(OAc)₂ (1-2 mol %) was found to be effective for this transformation at 80 °C. The reaction was successful with either conventional or microwave heating. CuO and CuO/ZnO on activated carbon provided a competent reuseable heterogeneous catalyst which could be used in a batch process or in flow. Copper salts are much cheaper than the precious metals previously used for this rearrangement, and the reaction conditions are milder than those reported.     

Synthesis of cyclopropanoid 2-epi-muramyldipeptide analogues as potential immunostimulants

The preparation of cyclopropanoid 2-epi-muramyldipeptide analogues from suitable substituted cyclopropylamines is described.