Enantiomeric purity determination of malic acid in apple juices by multi-beam circular dichroism detection

A multi-beam circular dichroism (CD) detector which is easily constructed by inserting inexpensive optics into a conventional photo-diode array detector has an advantage of simultaneous detection of the absorbance and CD. The enantiomeric purity determination of malic acid in beverages was performed by this detection system. Malic acid when complexed with Cu(II) was found to have an absorbance maximum at around 750 nm. The L-malic acid-Cu(II) complex showed a positive Cotton effect in its absorbance band and its anisotropy factor (delta epsilon/epsilon) was relatively large at about 1/170. This complex was retained on a reversed-phase column with the addition of racemic 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutyric acid to the mobile phase as the ligand. A plot of the relative peak areas between the CD and the absorption (delta abs/abs) versus optical purity showed good linearity with a correlation coefficient of 0.999, and the precision expressed as the relative standard deviation of the errors from the regression line was +/-2.7% (2sigma). The accuracy of the proposed method was assessed by capillary electrophoresis. Eight commercially available juice products were analyzed using this method. Five of them were thought to be adulterated with synthetic malic acid.     

A remarkable stereoselectivity switching upon solid-state versus solution-phase enantiodifferentiating photocyclodimerization of 2-anthracenecarboxylic acid mediated by native and 3,6-anhydro-γ-cyclodextrins

The enantiodifferentiating [4+4] photocyclodimerization of anthracenecarboxylic acid (AC) mediated by native, mono- and di-3,6-anhydro-γ-cyclodextrins was investigated in both aqueous solution and solid-state. The solid-state photolyses gave inherently disfavored head-to-head photodimers in much higher chemical and optical yields than in the aqueous solution.     

A characteristic effect of pressure on inclusion complexation of phenothiazine dyes with p-sulfonatocalix[6]arene in a room-temperature ionic liquid

The inclusion complexation of p-sulfonatocalix[6]arene (Calix-S6) with three kinds of phenothiazine dyes was studied spectrophotometrically in a mixture of a room-temperature ionic liquid [bmim]BF₄ (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate) and ethanol. We have determined the association constants of Calix-S6 with phenothiazine dyes under external static pressure up to 767 bar in the [bmim]BF₄-ethanol and alcohol-water mixtures. With increasing external pressure, the inclusion equilibrium in the alcohol-water mixtures was shifted to the dissociation side. Conversely, the inclusion equilibrium of methylene blue (MB) and azure A (AA) in the ionic liquid mixture was shifted to the association side. From the analysis of the pressure effects, the reaction volumes ΔV for inclusion complexation were estimated as −7 to 9 cm³ mol⁻¹ in the [bmim]BF₄-ethanol mixture and 20–32 cm³ mol⁻¹ in the alcohol-water mixtures. Based on the results, we have suggested that there is a competing complexation between the included dye and [bmim]BF₄ molecules in the ionic liquid.     

Solubility of α-amino acids in water under high pressure: glycine, -alanine, -valine, -leucine, and -isoleucine

The solubility of glycine, -alanine, -valine, -leucine, and -isoleucine in water was measured at 298.15 K and pressures up to 400 MPa. The standard deviation of the logarithm of the solubility is 0.001–0.003, equal to or better than the accuracy of atmospheric pressure measurement in the literature (0.001–0.05). A variety of solubility phenomena were observed. The solubility of glycine decreased with increasing pressure, whereas that of -alanine increased. The -valine and -isoleucine have a solubility maximum at around 100 MPa, and -leucine seems to exhibit a solid-phase phase transition at around 200 MPa. Pressure coefficient of the solubilities at 0.10 MPa is compared with that thermodynamically estimated in reference to aqueous density measurements of glycine and -alanine at 298.15 K and 0.10 MPa, supporting a reliability of our high-pressure measurements.     

Methylmethacrylate complexes of sterically hindered aluminum aryloxides: activation of methacrylic esters

The interaction of AlR₂(BHT)(OEt₂) and AlMe(BHT)₂ with methylmethacrylate (MMA) leads to the formation of the Lewis acid-base complexes AlR₂(BHT)(MMA) [R = Me (1), Et (2)] and AlMe-(BHT)₂(MMA) (3), respectively. The molecular structure of 1 has been determined by X-ray crystallography. The decrease in the C=O and C=C stretching frequencies in the IR spectrum, and downfield shift in the ¹³C NMR spectrum of the - and γ-carbons of the MMA, when compared to free MMA, is presented with respect to the activator ability of sterically crowded aryloxide compounds of aluminum to aluminum-porphyrin catalyzed (Inoue) polymerization of MMA.