Syringe-cartridge solid-phase extraction method for patulin in apple juice

A syringe-cartridge solid-phase extraction (SPE) method was developed for determination of patulin in apple juice. A 2.5 mL portion of test sample was passed through a conditioned macroporous SPE cartridge and washed with 2 mL 1% sodium bicarbonate followed by 2 mL 1% acetic acid. Patulin was eluted with 1 mL 10% ethyl acetate in ethyl ether and determined by reversed-phase liquid chromatography using a mobile phase consisting of 81% acetonitrile, 9% water, and 10% 0.05M potassium phosphate buffer, pH 2.4. Recoveries averaged 92% and the relative standard deviation was 8.0% in test samples spiked with 50 ng/mL patulin. The method appears to be applicable for monitoring apple juice samples to meet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration compliance action level of 50 microg/kg in an industrial quality assurance laboratory environment.     

24,24-Dimethylvitamin D3-26,23-lactones and their 2α-functionalized analogues as highly potent VDR antagonists

Novel vitamin D receptor (VDR) antagonists, 24,24-dimethyl-1α-hydroxyvitamin D₃-26,23-lactones (8 and 9) and their C2α functionalized analogues (8a-c and 9a-c) were efficiently synthesized and their biological activities were evaluated. The construction of vitamin D₃ triene skeleton was achieved by palladium-catalyzed alkenylative cyclization of A-ring precursor enyne (22 and 22a-c) with CD-ring bromoolefin having a 24,24-dimethyl-α-methylene-γ-lactone unit on the side chain (13 and 14). The CD-ring precursors 13 and 14 were prepared by using chromium-mediated allylation of the aldehyde 10 derived from vitamin D₂. On the other hand, the A-ring enyne having 2α-(3-hydroxypropyl) group (22b) was newly synthesized from epoxide 15 using regio- and stereoselective alkylation methodology. The potency of the antagonistic activity of the newly designed analogues (8 and 9) increased up to 12 times that of TEI-9647 (2). Furthermore, introduction of the three motifs, that is, a methyl (8a and 9a), an ω-hydroxypropyl (8b and 9b) or an ω-hydroxypropoxyl group (8c and 9c) into the C2α position of 8 and 9, respectively, resulted in remarkable enhancement, up to 89 times, of the antagonistic activity on VDR.     

Does Gd@C82 have an anomalous endohedral structure? Synthesis and single crystal X-ray structure of the carbene adduct

We report here the results on single crystal X-ray crystallographic analysis of the Gd@C82 carbene adduct (Gd@C82(Ad), Ad = adamantylidene). The Gd atom in Gd@C82(Ad) is located at an off-centered position near a hexagonal ring in the C2v-C82 cage, as found for M@C82 (M = Sc and La) and La@C82(Ad). Theoretical calculation also confirms the position of the Gd atom in the X-ray crystal structure.