Novel total synthesis of anserinone A and B

Anserinones A and B are natural products that have been shown to have potential anticancer, antifungal, and antibacterial properties. This work entails the novel synthesis of these natural products.     

Measurement of rotating flows using PIV and image derotation

This paper describes the use of a rotating all-mirror image derotator system, high-speed video and particle image velocimetry (PIV) to visualise and quantitatively examine the flow patterns between the blades of a centrifugal impeller. The flow field relative to the moving centrifugal impeller is presented. Published online: 13 December 2002     

Synthesis,Leishmanicidal, Trypanocidal,Antiproliferative Assay and Apoptotic Induction of (2-Phenoxypyridin-3-yl)naphthalene-1(2H)-one Derivatives

The coexistence of leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and neoplasia in endemic areas has been extensively documented. The use of common drugs in the treatment of these pathologies invites us to search for new molecules with these characteristics. In this research, we report 16 synthetic chalcone derivatives that were investigated for leishmanicidal and trypanocidal activities as well as for antiproliferative potential on eight human cancers and two nontumor cell lines. The final compounds 8–23 were obtained using the classical base-catalyzed Claisen–Schmidt condensation. The most potent compounds as parasiticidal were found to be 22 and 23, while compounds 18 and 22 showed the best antiproliferative activity and therapeutic index against CCRF-CEM, K562, A549, and U2OS cancer cell lines and non-toxic VERO, BMDM, MRC-5, and BJ cells. In the case of K562 and the corresponding drug-resistant K562-TAX cell lines, the antiproliferative activity has shown a more significant difference for compound 19 having 10.3 times higher activity against the K562-TAX than K562 cell line. Flow cytometry analysis using K562 and A549 cell lines cultured with compounds 18 and 22 confirmed the induction of apoptosis in treated cells after 24 h. Based on the structural analysis, these chalcones represent new compounds potentially useful for Leishmania, Trypanosoma cruzi, and some cancer treatments.     

Determination of amino acids in apple extracts by high performance liquid chromatography

Summary A rapid and sensitive method for the simultaneous determination of primary amino acids in apple is described. After sample preparation, amino acids were derivatized with o-phthaldialdehyde/2-mercaptoethanol and separated on a reversed phase column with a gradient of phosphate buffer-tetrahydrofuran-methanol as the mobile phase. Detection was carried out with a fluorescence detector at excitation and emission wavelengths of 340 nm and 425 nm respectively. Recovery studies showed good results for all substances (91–109%) (with coefficients of variation ranging, from 0.1 to 9.0%). This method was applied to the monitoring of amino acids during the ripening of apples.     

Isolation from Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus cell walls of specific receptors for sugarcane glycoproteins, which act as recognition factors

Glycoproteins from sugarcane stalks have been isolated from plants field-grown by size-exclusion chromatography. Some of these glycoproteins, previously labelled with fluorescein isothiocyanate, are able to bind to the cell wall of the sugarcane endophyte, N2-fixing Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus, and largely removed after washing the bacterial cells with sucrose. This implies that sugarcane glycoproteins use beta-(1-->2)-fructofuranosyl fructose domains in their glycosidic moiety to bind to specific receptors in the bacterial cell walls. These receptors have been isolated by affinity chromatography on a sugarcane glycoprotein-agarose matrix, desorbed with sucrose and characterized by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophresisand capillary electrophoresis (CE).     

The nature of active sites in Ba(OH)2 catalyst

A general and repetitive method to determine the base strength and number of basic sites of catalysts with low surface area is reported. The nature of the titrating agent is discussed. The nature of the active sites of a Ba(OH)₂ catalyst with low surface area is discussed.

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. . Ba(OH)₂, .

     

The influence of sulfonation degree on the thermal behaviour of sulfonated poly(arylene ethersulfone)s

Initial decomposition temperature (T_i), apparent activation energy of degradation (E_a) and glass transition temperature (T_g) of some low molar mass (M_n ≈ 8000 g mol⁻¹) sulfonated poly(arylene ethersulfone)s s-(PAES)s were determined to check their dependence on sulfonation degree (SD). The results obtained were compared with those for unsulfonated poly(arylene ethersulfone) PAES. In order to have an accurate control of the chemical structure, a pre-sulfonation route was followed for the preparation of sulfonated compounds. The thermal behaviour of the investigated s-(PAES)s as well as that of PAES appears not to be influenced by the environment (flowing nitrogen or static air atmosphere) of degradation. Both T_i and T_g values of s-(PAES)s were higher than those of PAES and increased quite linearly as a function of sulfonation degree. An analogous linear trend was observed for the apparent degradation energy of s-(PAES)s, but the values found were largely lower than those of unsulfonated homopolymer. The results are discussed and interpreted.     

Nature-inspired cascade catalysis: reaction control through substrate concentration--double vs. quadruple domino reactions

The design of biologically inspired, multi-component cascade reactions enables the targeted synthesis of assorted structurally complex products. Similar to regulation in cells the reaction path is controlled by the substrate concentration and complex enantiopure products with high structural diversity are provided.     

Global optimization of ionic Mg(n)F(2n) (n=1-30) clusters

The global optimization basin-hopping (BH) method has been used to locate the global minima (GM) of Mg(n)F(2n) (n=1-30) clusters using a Born-Mayer-type potential. Some of the GM were particularly difficult to find, requiring more than 1.5 x 10(4) BH steps. We have found that both the binding energy per MgF2 unit and the effective volume of the GM isomers increase almost linearly with n, and that cluster symmetry decreases with cluster size. The data derived from the BH runs reveal a growing density of local minima just above the GM as n increases. Despite this, the attraction basin around each GM is relatively large, since after all their atomic coordinates are randomly displaced by values as high as 2.0 bohrs, the perturbed structures, upon reoptimization, relax back to the GM in more than 50% of the cases (except for n=10 and 11). The relative stabilities derived from energy second differences suggest that n=8,10,13,15, and 20 are probably the magic numbers for these systems. Mass spectrum experiments would be very useful to clarify this issue.