Origin of stereoselectivity in the reduction of a planar oxacarbenium

The Kishi reduction of a planar oxacarbenium was investigated theoretically. The high diastereoselectivity for hydride transfer to the oxacarbenium intermediate is attributed to the conformation of the transition state that places the allyl side chain in an equatorial position in the major transition state and axial position in the minor. The minor transition state is destabilized by a 1,3-diaxial strain between the attacking hydride and the syn allyl side chain.     

Aminolysis of 4-nitrophenyl phenyl carbonate and thionocarbonate: effects of amine nature and modification of electrophilic center from C[double bond]O to C[double bond]S on reactivity and mechanism

A kinetic study is reported for the reactions of 4-nitrophenyl phenyl carbonate (5) and thionocarbonate (6) with a series of alicyclic secondary amines in 80 mol% H(2)O-20 mol% DMSO at 25.0 +/- 0.1 degrees C. The plots of k(obsd) vs. amine concentration are linear for the reactions of 5. On the contrary, the plots for the corresponding reactions of 6 curve upward as a function of increasing amine concentration, indicating that the reactions proceed through two intermediates (i.e., a zwitterionic tetrahedral intermediate T(+/-) and its deprotonated form T(-)). The Br?nsted-type plot for 5 the reactions of with secondary amines exhibits a downward curvature, i.e., the slope decreases from 0.98 to 0.26 as the pK(a) of the conjugate acid of amines increases, implying that the reactions proceed through T(+/-) with a change in the rate-determining step (RDS). The k(N) values are larger for the reactions of with secondary amines than for those with primary amines of similar basicity. Dissection of k(N) values for the reactions of 5 into the microscopic rate constants (i.e., k(1) and k(2)/k(-1) ratio) has revealed that k(1) is larger for the reactions with secondary amines than for those with isobasic primary amines, while the k(2)/k(-1) ratio is nearly identical. On the other hand, for reactions of 6, secondary amines exhibit larger k(1) values but smaller k(2)/k(-1) ratios than primary amines. The current study has shown that the reactivity and reaction mechanism are strongly influenced by the nature of amines (primary vs. secondary amines) and electrophilic centers (C[double bond]O vs. C[double bond]S).     

Evaluation of Enzyme Mixtures in Releasing Fermentable Sugars from Pre-pulping Extracts of Mixed Northeast Hardwoods

One near-term option to developing a forest product biorefinery is to derive pre-pulping extract from incoming wood chips before the main pulping step. The release of monomer sugars from a xylan-rich extract, creating a fermentable substrate is a prerequisite for utilization of pre-pulping extract for production of ethanol or other value-added products. This study examined the individual and mixture efficiencies of two hemicellulolytic microbial enzymes and two xylanase preparations in catalyzing degradation of green liquor (GL) and hot water (HW) pre-pulping extracts. The effects of four commercial enzyme preparations were determined by assessing yields of xylose + galactose + mannose (xmg) obtained under different reaction conditions. Of the individual enzyme preparations tested, a sample NS 50012 was superior to the other enzyme preparations in releasing xmg under conditions optimized for separate hydrolysis and fermentation and for simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. In comparison to pre-pulping extracts treated with HW, extract treated with GL was found to inhibit the action of all tested enzymes. This inhibition may be related to higher salt and lignin phenol in the GL extract. On both types of extracts, the mixture constituted by NS 50012 and NS 50030 provided the highest yield of hemicellulose conversion at 55 °C and pH 5.5. The generated digestibility thus signified that the synergistic effectiveness in xylan + galactan + mannan (XMG) hydrolysis between NS 50012 (from Aspergillus aculeatus) and NS 50030 (from Aspergillus oryzae) is the result of an interaction mechanism involving different XMG-degrading enzyme activities in the two enzyme preparations.     

Interleukin-1�� promotes the expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in human aorta smooth muscle cells via multiple signaling pathways

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP1) plays a key role in monocyte/macrophage infiltration to the sub-endothelial space of the blood vessel wall, which is a critical initial step in atherosclerosis. In this study, we examined the intracellular signaling pathway of IL-1β-induced MCP1 expression using various chemical inhibitors. The pretreatment of a phosphatidylcholine (PC)-specific PLC (PC-PLC) inhibitor (D609), PKC inhibitors, or an NF-κB inhibitor completely suppressed the IL-1β-induced MCP1 expression through blocking NF-κB translocation to the nucleus. Pretreatment with inhibitors of tyrosine kinase or PLD partially suppressed MCP1 expression and failed to block nuclear NF-κB translocation. These results suggest that IL-1β induces MCP1 expression through activation of NF-κB via the PC-PLC/PKC signaling pathway.     

Effects on the Reactivity by Changing the Electrophilic Center from CO to CS: Contrasting Reactivity of Hydroxide,p‐Chlorophenoxide,and Butan‐2,3‐dione Monoximate in DMSO/H2O Mixtures

Second‐order rate constants have been measured spectrophotometrically for the reactions of O‐p‐nitrophenyl thionobenzoate ( 1 , PNPTB) with HO^?, butan‐2,3‐dione monoximate (Ox^?, α‐nucleophile), and p‐chlorophenoxide (p‐ClPhO^?, normal nucleophile) in DMSO/H₂O of varying mixtures at (25.0±0.1) °C. Reactivity of these nucleophiles significantly increases with increasing DMSO content. HO^? is less reactive than p‐ClPhO^? toward 1 up to 70 mol % DMSO although HO^? is over six pK_a units more basic in these media. Ox^? is more reactive than p‐ClPhO^? in all media studied, indicating that the α‐effect is in effect. The magnitude of the α‐effect (i.e., k/k_p) increases with the DMSO content up to 50 mol % DMSO and decreases beyond that point. However, the dependency of the α‐effect profile on the solvent for reactions of 1 contrasts to that reported previously for the corresponding reactions of p‐nitrophenyl benzoate ( 2 , PNPB); reactions of 1 result in much smaller α‐effects than those of 2 . Breakdown of the α‐effect into ground‐state (GS) and transition‐state (TS) effects shows that the GS effect is not responsible for the α‐effect across the solvent mixtures. The role of the solvent has been discussed on the basis of the bell‐shaped α‐effect profiles found in the current study as well as in our previous studies, that is, a GS effect in the H₂O‐rich region through H‐bonding interactions and a TS effect in the DMSO‐rich media through mutual polarizability interactions.     

Quantum mechanical investigation of the effect of catalyst fluorination in the intermolecular asymmetric Stetter reaction

The asymmetric intermolecular Stetter reaction was investigated using the B3LYP and M06-2X functionals. Fluorination of a triazolium bicyclic catalyst had been found to significantly influence reaction yields and enantiomeric ratios. Computations indicate that the improved reactivity of the fluorinated catalyst is due to better electrostatic interactions between the nitroalkene and catalyst. Computational investigations of preferred conformations of the ground state catalyst and acyl anion equivalent, and the transition structures leading to both enantiomers of the products, are reported.     

Plastoquinones from Sargassum yezoense; chemical structures and effects on the activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma

Four new plastoquinones, together with two known compounds, sargahydroquinoic acid and sargaquinoic acid, were isolated from the brown alga, Sargassum yezoense collected from the eastern coast of Korea. The structures of these compounds were elucidated based on spectroscopic analyses including NMR and MS. Their structures designated as meroterphenol A (1), B (2), C (3) and D (4) were characterized by a 6-methyl-1,4-benzohydroquinone moiety with an oxygenated diterpenoic acid chain. Meroterphenols A-D showed potent activation effects on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ).     

Rapid identification and evaluation of antioxidant compounds from extracts of Petasites japonicus by hyphenated-HPLC techniques

Gradient HPLC coupled to Diode Array Detector (DAD), MS/MS and NMR was applied to the rapid structure determination of major compounds of methanol extracts from leaves and roots of Petasites japonicus. The relative antioxidant capacities of the compounds were evaluated by an HPLC system with post-column on-line antioxidant detection based on 2,2'-azinobis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid radical scavenging. Six compounds were successfully separated on a reverse-phase C(18) column and were identified as 5-caffeoylquinic acid (5-CQA), fukinolic acid (FA), 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (3,5-DCQA), quercetin-3-O-(6″-acetyl)-β-glucopyranoside (QAG), 4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (4,5-DCQA) and kaempferol-3-O-(6″-acetyl)-β-glucopyranoside (KAG) by MS/MS and (1)H NMR data. Among these compounds, those containing a caffeoyl moiety (5-CQA, FA, 3,5- and 4,5-DCQA) showed relatively strong radical scavenging capacity, with 3,5-DCQA having the greatest radical scavenging capacity in leaf (23.09% of total antioxidant capacity) and root (26.47%) extracts. The relative radical scavenging portion of QAG was only 3.41% in the leaves and KAG did not show any radical scavenging activity. These results demonstrate that the hyphenated HPLC techniques can be successfully applied to rapidly identify structures and evaluate antioxidant activities without prior purification of compounds from plant tissues of P. japonicus.     

Alkali-metal-ion catalysis and inhibition in the nucleophilic displacement reaction of y-substituted phenyl diphenylphosphinates and diphenylphosphinothioates with alkali-metal ethoxides: effect of changing the electrophilic center from P=O to P=S

A kinetic study of the nucleophilic substitution reaction of Y‐substituted phenyl diphenylphosphinothioates 2 a – g with alkali‐metal ethoxides (MOEt; M=Li, Na, K) in anhydrous ethanol at (25.0±0.1) °C is reported. Plots of pseudo‐first‐order rate constants (k_obsd) versus [MOEt], the alkali ethoxide concentration, show distinct upward (KOEt) and downward (LiOEt) curvatures, respectively, pointing to the importance of ion‐pairing phenomena and a differential reactivity of dissociated EtO^? and ion‐paired MOEt. Based on ion‐pairing treatment of the kinetic data, the k_obsd values were dissected into k and k_MOEt, the second‐order rate constants for the reaction with the dissociated EtO^? and ion‐paired MOEt, respectively. The reactivity of MOEt toward 2 b (Y=4‐NO₂) increases in the order LiOEt?NaOEt>KOEt>EtO^?. The current study based on Yukawa–Tsuno analysis has revealed that the reactions of 2 a – g (P?S) and Y‐substituted phenyl diphenylphosphinates 1 a – g (P?O) with MOEt proceed through the same concerted mechanism, which indicates that the contrasting selectivity patterns are not due to a difference in reaction mechanism. The P?O compounds 1 a – g are approximately 80‐fold more reactive than the P?S compounds 2 a – g toward the dissociated EtO^? (regardless of the electronic nature of substituent Y) but are up to 3.1×10³‐fold more reactive toward ion‐paired LiOEt. The origin of the contrasting selectivity patterns is further discussed on the basis of competing electrostatic effects and solvational requirements as a function of anionic electric field strength and cation size (Eisenman’s theory).