Synthesis and reactions of 4-vinyl pyridine derivatives of ruthenium(II)

4-Vinyl pyridine (4-Vp) reacts with RuHClCO(PPh₃)₃ (I) in THF to give RuHClCO(PPh₃)₂(4-Vp) (II, which reacts with sodium derivatives of bidentate chelating ligands to afford substitution products, [RuH(CO)(PPh₃)₂(L)]. The bindentate ligands used are 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde, 2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, trifluorothenoylacetone and 8-hydroxyquinoline. Insertion reactions of the Ru---H bond of II with activated olefins such as acrylonitrile [giving RuCl(CO)(CH₃CHCN)(PPh₃)₂(4-Vp)], 2-vinyl pyridine, dimethyl fumarate and monobromodiethyl fumarate have been carried out to obtain chelated Ru---C bonded complexes. RuCl₂(PPh₃)₃ reacts with an excess of 4-Vp to give an octahedral ruthenium addition complex containing two vinyl pyridine ligands. The dimer [RuClCO(CH₃CHCN)(PPh₃)(4-Vp)]₂ is obtained by the reaction of [RuClCO(CH₃CHCN)(PPh₃)₂]₂ with an excess of 4-Vp. Stereochemical assignments have been made for these new complexes on the basis of IR and ¹H NMR data.     

On solving large instances of the capacitated facility location problem

We present two sets of results pertaining to the solution of capacitated facility location problems that are large, especially with regard to the number of customers. One set of results relates to customer aggregation, while another set of results concerns the judicious selection of variable-upper-bounding (VUB) constraints to include in the initial integer-programming formulation.     

A validated HPTLC method for determination of trans-caryophyllene from polyherbal formulations

Formulations of traditional medicines are usually made up of a complex mixture of herbs. However, effective quality control methods in order to select materials of the right quality are lacking. 'Amukkara choornam' is a polyherbal Siddha formulation used for gastritis, spleen enlargement, leucorrhoea, hiccups, anaemia, tuberculosis and kappa diseases. Trans-caryophyllene is an important constituent present in the ingredients of this formulation. In a literature survey, it was found that there is no such method for the quantification of trans-caryophyllene except gas chromatography or gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). So, a high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method was developed and validated for the quantification of trans-caryophyllene in amukkara choornam. Pre-coated silica gel 60F-254 plates (10 × 10 cm2) were used for the analysis. The solvent system consisted of toluene-ethyl acetatate (9 : 3, v/v), and trans-caryophyllene was detected at 260 nm. The developed method was validated for linearity (R2 = 0.9996 ± 0.0034), limit of detection (LOD) (0.101 ng), limit of quantification (LOQ) (0.639 ng), accuracy (% recovery = 97.19 ± 1.204), and precision (CV < 5%, for both intra-day and inter-day precisions). The levels of trans-caryophyllene were found to be 3.5-4.10 μg per gram of herbal products.     

An efficient and chemoselective Cbz-protection of amines using silica-sulfuric acid at room temperature

A simple, facile, and chemoselective N-benzyloxycarbonylation of amines using silica-sulfuric acid that proceeds under solvent-free conditions at room temperature has been achieved. These reactions are applicable to a wide variety of primary (aliphatic and cyclic) secondary amines, amino alcohols, and heterocyclic amines.