13C-NMR. Spectroscopy of Naturally Occuring Substances. XLII. Conformational analysis of quebrachamine-like indole alkaloids and related substances

The ¹³C shifts of 16α- and 16β-substituted derivatives of quebrachamine, 14,15-dehydroquebrachamine, cleavamine, 15,20α-dihydrocleavamine and 15,20β-dihydrocleavamine are determined and correlated with possible conformations of these tetracycles. The method of analysis of the C(16) configuration of these compounds, which emanated from this study, is used for the determination of the configuration of the site of coupling of vindoline and cleavamine β-chloroindolenine.     

Electron paramagnetic resonance study of partially oriented clay platelets intercalated with copper(II) 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of powder and oriented films of montmorillonite, hectorite, and saponite intercalated with [Cu(cyclam)](2+) (cyclam = 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane) exhibit three components: an orientation-dependent component without hyperfine features, an orientation-dependent component with hyperfine features, and an orientation-independent component without hyperfine feature. EPR spectra of [Cu(cyclam)](2+)-saponite, which exhibit only two components and the best resolved hyperfine features, were simulated. The spectra indicate that a large portion of the saponite platelets are inclined to the glass surface, although they tend to align with their basal planes parallel to the glass surface. The orientation-dependent spectra could be simulated by introducing a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation of 20 degrees for the inclination angle. The standard deviation may be used as a disorder parameter for the microcrystals assembled on glass plates. Spectral simulation also shows that the CuN(4) plane of [Cu(cyclam)](2+) is parallel to the clay layers. EPR spectra of some other partially oriented systems are also discussed.     

A remark on nilpotent Lie Algebras

Letf(n) denoted the number of essential parameters which are needed to classifyn-dimensional nilpotent Lie Algebras over the complex number field. Then $f(2n) \geqslant \tfrac{{n(n2 - 7)}}{6} - 2$ .     

Thermodynamic properties of alkali halides. IV. Apparent molal volumes,expansibilities, compressibilities,and heat capacities in urea-water mixtures

The apparent molal volume φ_v, expansibility φ_E, compressibility φ_K, and heat capacity φ_c of NaCl were measured in urea-water mixtures, as a function of salt (<1.5m) and urea (<13m) concentrations at 25°C. At a fixed urea concentration, the transfer functions from H₂O to 3m urea are linear functions of the NaCl aquamolality. At a fixed salt aquamolality, (0.1m), the sign of the transfer functions is in the direction of a decrease in the structure-breaking effect, and the absolute values of the transfer functions tend to level off at high urea concentrations (13m). The functions φ_v, φ_E, φ_K, φ_c, and (?φ_v/?T)_p were measured for the sodium halides and alkali, bromides (chlorides in the case of φ_K) at a fixed salt aquamolality of 0.1m and fixed urea molality of 3m. The corresponding transfer functions from H₂O to 3m urea are opposite those from H₂O to D₂O and similarly are relatively independent of ionic size. This suggests that urea, shows no specific interaction affinity for ions and that the overall number of water molecules influenced by the ions is relatively constant for all alkali halides. The lithium halides are an exception in that Li⁺ seems to have hardly any structure-breaking effect.     

Synthesis of 4-acetylisocoumarin: first total syntheses of AGI-7 and sescandelin

A practical synthetic route to 4-acetylisocoumarins and the first total synthesis of AGI-7 (5) and sescandelin (4) are described. The readily available homophthalate 8 was transformed to the vinylogous amide ester 13 in high overall yield. Upon treatment of 13 with refluxing aqueous formic acid, the desired 4-acetylisocoumarin (5) and its regioisomer 3-methyl-4-formylisocoumarin (17) were produced in a 3:1 ratio. After separation of the desired product (5) from the unwanted minor isomer, the enantioselective reduction of AGI-7 by borane in the presence of Corey's (S)-oxazaborolidine reagent afforded (+)-sescandelin (4) with a 93% ee.