Highly diastereo- and enantioselective direct aldol reactions of aldehydes and ketones catalyzed by siloxyproline in the presence of water

Proline-based organocatalysts have been developed for a highly enantioselective, direct aldol reaction of aldehydes and ketones in the presence of water. While several surfactant-proline combined catalysts have proved effective, proline derivatives with a hydrophobic moiety such as trans-siloxy-L-proline and cis-siloxy-D-proline, both of which are easily prepared from the same commercially available 4-hydroxy-L-proline, have been found to be the most effective organocatalysts examined in this study, affording the aldol product with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities, these two catalysts generating opposite enantiomers. Water affects the selectivity, and poor results are obtained under neat reaction conditions or in dry organic solvents. More than three equivalents of water are required for the best diastereo- and enantioselectivities, while three equivalents is the recommended amount from a synthetic point of view. The reaction proceeds in the organic phase, and also proceeds in the presence of a large amount of water. The large-scale preparation of aldols with the minimal use of an organic solvent, including in the purification step, is described.     

Facile formation of five-membered N-heterocyclic zirconacycloallenoids

The reaction of η(2)-iminozirconocene chloride complexes with trimethylsilylethynyl lithium leads to rapid C-C coupling at room temperature to yield the corresponding five-membered aza-zirconacycloallenoids. Such compounds were also obtained by trapping of in situ generated zirconocene with alkynyl imines.     

Transient pore dynamics in pH-responsive liquid membrane

We have investigated the transient pore dynamics in a chemically destabilized liquid membrane in buffer solutions at macroscopic scale. A hole opened and closed repeatedly in response to pH in the surrounding media when the concentration of surfactant in the liquid membrane was sufficiently high to form emulsion at equilibrium and the membrane was larger than a critical value. The analysis of pore dynamics allowed us to estimate some physicochemical properties such as membrane tension, line tension, and membrane viscosity.     

Porphyrin nanochannels reinforced by hydrogen bonding

Carboxyl groups were introduced at the peripheral positions of dodecaphenylporphyrin to link nanochannel structures with intermolecular hydrogen bonds to make the supramolecular structures robust.     

New labdane diterpenoids from Hyptis fasciculata

Two new labdane diterpenoids, 15beta-methoxyfaciculatin (1) and 15alpha-methoxyfaciculatin B (2), together with the previously known methoxynepetaefolin (3), were isolated from a methanol extract of the dried aerial parts of a Brazilian medicinal plant, Hyptis faciculata. Their structures were elucidated by analysis of spectroscopic data. Plausible biogenetic correlation between faciculatins and nepetaefolin is briefly discussed.     

Chiral Brønsted acid catalyzed enantioselective hydrophosphonylation of imines: asymmetric synthesis of alpha-amino phosphonates

[reaction: see text] A cyclic phosphoric acid derivative, derived from (R)-BINOL, was used as a chiral Br?nsted acid (10 mol %) in hydrophosphonylation of aldimines with diisopropyl phosphite at room temperature. Alpha-amino phosphonates were obtained with good to high enantioselectivities.     

Comparison of potassium ion preference of potassium-sensing oligonucleotides,PSO-1 and PSO-2, carrying the human and Oxytricha telomeric sequence,respectively

Human [G(3)(TTAG(3))(3)] and Oxytricha [G(4)(T(4)G(4))(3)] telomere model oligonucleotides, PSO-1 and PSO-2, bearing two fluorophores, 6-carboxyfluorescein (6-FAM) and 6-carboxytetramethylrhodamine (6-TAMRA) at their 5'- and 3'-termini, respectively, were synthesized. Both of them can form an intramolecular antiparallel tetraplex upon addition of K(+), and an enhanced fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was observed. PSO-1 showed a 43,000 times higher selectivity for K(+) against Na(+). Fluorometric and circular dichroism spectrophotometric studies revealed that this system is useful for the evaluation of the interaction of different telomeric repeat oligonucleotide sequences with metal ions.     

A porphyrin nanochannel: formation of cationic channels by a protonated saddle-distorted porphyrin and its inclusion behavior

A highly saddle-distorted dodecaphenylporphyrin dication (H4DPP2+) was revealed by X-ray crystallography to form positively charged porphyrin nanochannels which were 1 nm in diameter; chloride anion and redox-active hydroquinone could be incorporated in the channels.