Convenient synthesis of alkoxyhalosilanes from hydrosilanes

Selective dehydrogenative coupling of di- and trihydrosilanes with alcohols catalyzed by PdCl₂ or NiCl₂ afforded alkoxyhydro- and dialkoxyhydrosilanes in good yield. Further treatment of the resulting alkoxyhydrosilanes with carbon tetrachloride or allyl bromide in the presence of the same catalyst led to the formation of alkoxychloro- and alkoxybromosilanes, respectively. Similar reactions of dialkoxyhydrosilanes with carbon tetrachloride afforded dialkoxychlorosilanes in good yield, although contamination of small amounts of trialkoxysilanes and alkoxydichlorosilanes was detected in the products. Selective substitution of the alkoxyhalosilanes with nucleophiles is also reported.     

Determination of midodrine in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection.

A simple and sensitive fluorometric high-performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the determination of midodrine in human plasma. After liquid-liquid extraction from plasma, the drug and 2-phenylglycinol (internal standard) were convened into the corresponding fluorescent derivatives by reaction with 3,4-dihydro-6,7-dimethoxy-4-methyl-3-oxoquinoxaline-2-carbonyl chloride, a fluorescence derivatization reagent for amines. The derivatives were separated within 30 min on a reversed-phase column using isocratic elution with acetonitrile-methanol-water (10:30:60, v/v) and were detected spectrofluorometrically at 485 nm with excitation at 400 nm. The detection limit for midodrine was 0.3 pmol (76 pg) per mL plasma at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3.     

A quantum chemical study of interchain hopping model of negatively charged solitons in polyacetylene

Phonon-assisted interchain hopping of negatively charged solitons in polyacetylene has been studied using a local chemical reaction model CH + CH₄ → CH₄ + CH. Quantum chemical characteristics of the electron transfer process have been analyzed in terms of the dynamic electron density and the mutual polarization moment. The CH stretching vibrational motion of CH₄, which is a local model of the sp³ defect, has been found to play a significant role for the electron transfer. The excitation of the corresponding vibrational mode of the sp³ defect would promote the interchain hopping of the charged soliton. The electron transfer process has also been studied in terms of the “regional” density functional theory. It has been shown that the driving force of the electron transfer is represented by the regional chemical potentials.     

Progress toward the total synthesis of ciguatoxins: a convergent synthesis of the FGHIJKLM ring fragment

[structure: see text] A highly convergent synthetic route to the FGHIJKLM ring fragment of ciguatoxins has been developed, which relied on extensive use of the B-alkyl Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction.     

Dynamic stability of carbonyl ylides

The non- and fluorine-substituted singlet carbonyl ylides are studied by using ab initio MCSCF calculations. The thermodynamic stability of the carbonyl ylides and the intramolecular stability to isomerization or fragmentation reaction coordinates is demonstrated in terms of the topological structure of the ab initio potential energy surfaces. The allylic resonance is found to be dynamically unstable, considering out-of-plane vibrational mode. The instability is studied by the symmetries of the low-lying excitations out of the MCSCF wave function.     

Stereoselective synthesis of procyanidin B3-3-O-gallate and 3,3″-di-O-gallate, and their abilities as antioxidant and DNA polymerase inhibitor

A simple method for the synthesis of procyanidin B3 substituted with a galloyl group at the 3 and 3″ position is described. Condensation of a benzylated catechin-3-O-gallate electrophile with a nucleophile, catechin and catechin-3-O-gallate, proceeded smoothly and stereoselectively to afford the corresponding dimer gallates, procyanidin B3-3-O-gallate and procyanidin B3-3,3″-di-O-gallate, in good yields. Further, their antioxidant activities on UV-induced lipid peroxide formation, DPPH radical scavenging activity and inhibitory activity of DNA polymerase were also investigated. Among three procyanidin B3 congeners (procyanidin B3, 3-O-gallate and 3,3″-di-O-gallate), the 3,3″-di-O-gallate derivative showed the strongest antioxidant and radical scavenging activity. Interestingly, the 3-O-gallate derivative was the strongest inhibitor of mammalian DNA polymerase with IC₅₀ value of 0.26 μM, although it showed the weakest antioxidant and radical scavenging activity. It became apparent that the presence of a galloyl group at the C-3 position in the proanthocyanidin oligomer was very important for biological activity, however, the antioxidant activity of these compounds was not parallel to the DNA polymerase inhibitory activity.     

Dioxopyrrolines. LXII. Diels-Alder reaction of 1-Aryl-4- and 5-methoxycarbonyl-1H-pyrrole-2,3-diones with various 1,3-dienes

Two new dioxopyrrolines (1-aryl-4-methoxycarbonyl-1H-pyrrole-2,3-dione 6 and the 5-methoxycarbonyl isomer 8) behaved as good dienophiles to some kind of 1,3-dienes examined. In most cases, the products were explained by the reaction where the largest lobe of HOMO of dienes reacted to the larger LUMO of dienophiles in an expected cis-endo manner. However, in the reactions of 8 with alkylbutadienes, piperylene and isoprene, abnormality in the reaction was observed, which was well explained by taking account of steric factors.