Concise, asymmetric total synthesis of spirotryprostatin A

The structurally intriguing cell-cycle inhibitor spirotryprostatin A has been synthesized utilizing an azomethine ylide dipolar cycloaddition reaction as the key step. This pentacyclic alkaloid contains a prenylated tryptophan-derived oxindole moiety that has been created in a regiocontrolled and stereocontrolled manner in a single step.     

Reactions of benzylchlorobis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(II) with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate

Benzylchlorobis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(II) reacted with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate to give [Pd[C(CO₂Me)=C(CH₂Ph)(CO₂Me)]Cl(PPh₃)₂] (II) and [(Ph₃P)ClPdμ-C(CO₂Me)=C(CO₂Me)PdCl(PPh₃) (III). Complexes II and III reacted with Tl(acac) to afford [PdC(CO₂Me=C(CH₂Ph)(CO₂Me)-(acac)(PPh₃)] and [(Ph₃P)(acac)Pdμ-C(CO₂Me)=C(CO₂Me)Pd(acac)(PPh₃)], respectively.     

Efficient method for large-scale preparation of two components H and I of Sg-6 saponins from whole seeds of wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. and Zucc.)

New saponin components, Sg-6 saponins, have been recently reported from the seeds of wild soybean (Glycine soja) which may have specific health benefits. To evaluate the possible health benefits, a large amount of Sg-6 saponins are needed, but general group A acetyl saponins and new Sg-6 saponins are eluted in overlapping peaks by ordinal preparative high-performance liquid chromatography and/or open column methods. A new method is proposed in this report. This method includes (1) deacetylation of group A acetyl saponins in alkali condition with KOH, (2) precipitation of Sg-6 saponins in acid condition with HCl, (3) recovery of Sg-6 saponins with aqueous methanol from the precipitate, and (4) elution of Sg-6 saponins by preparative reverse-phase open column. With this method, from 450?g of wild soybean whole seed powder, about 1?g of Sg-6 saponins (mixture of six components) was clearly separated from other saponins with 61% recovery.     

An asymmetric synthesis of (+)-monomorine I

The synthesis of (+)-monomorine I, an indolizidine alkaloid isolated from Monomorium pharaonis, has been achieved. The 2,6-cis-piperidine ring moiety of (+)-monomorine I was constructed using diastereoselective aminopalladation. Chain elongation via cross-metathesis using Hoveyda-Grubbs 2nd catalyst followed by deprotection of the Cbz group and cyclic reductive hydroamination afforded (+)-monomorine I.     

The movement of a water droplet on a gradient surface prepared by photodegradation

A hydrophobic to hydrophilic gradient surface was prepared using the tuned photodegradation of an alkylsilane self-assembled monolayer (SAM) using irradiation of vacuum ultraviolet light (wavelength=172 nm). The water contact angle on the photodegraded SAM surface was adjusted using the intensity and time photoirradiation parameters. The formation of a gradient was confirmed by fluorescent labeling. The water drop moved from the hydrophobic to hydrophilic surface with a velocity that depended on the gradient. The higher the gradient, the faster the water moved. For the first time, we have prepared a gradient surface using photodegradation where the movement of a water drop was regulated by the degree of gradation. Considering that the photodegradation technique can be applied to various surfaces and to lithography, this technique will be useful for various material surfaces.     

Separation of rhenium by extraction with crown ethers and flow-injection extraction—spectrophotometric determination with Brilliant Green

The extraction behavior of perrhenate with crown ethers was studied and methods for the separation and determination of rhenium were developed. The distribution ratio of perrhenate with dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 (DC18C6) increases with increases in the dielectric constant of organic solvents and in the potassium ion concentration of aqueous solution. The molar ratios of crown ether to KReO₄ in the extracted species are probably 1:1 for DC18C6, dibenzo-18-crown-6 and 18-crown-6 and 2:1 for benzo-15-crown-5 and 15-crown-5. Microgram amounts of rhenium were satisfactorily separated from large amounts of molbdenum(VI) by extraction with DC18C6 in 1,2-dichloroethane from 2 M potassium hydroxide solution containing tartrate and by back-extraction with sodium phosphate buffer solution after the addition of a twofold volume of hexane to the organic phase. Rhenium was determined by the flow-injection extraction-photometric method with Brilliant Green. Rhenium was satisfactory determined in molybdenite and other ore samples.     

Linear and nonlinear inversion schemes to retrieve collision kernel values from droplet size distribution change

This study presents an attempt to retrieve collision kernel values from changes in the droplet size distribution due to collision growth. Original linear and nonlinear inversion schemes are presented, which use the simple a priori assumption that the total collision rate is given by the sum of the gravitational and turbulent contributions. Our schemes directly handle binned (discretized) size distributions and, therefore, do not require any assumptions on distribution functional forms, such as the self-similarity assumption. To validate the schemes, three-dimensional direct numerical simulation (DNS) of colliding droplets in steady isotropic turbulence is performed. In the DNS, air turbulence is calculated using a pseudo-spectral method, while droplet motions are tracked by the Lagrangian method. Comparison between the retrieved collision kernels and the collision kernels obtained directly from the DNS show that for low Reynolds number flows both the linear and nonlinear inversion schemes give good accuracy. However, for higher Reynolds number flows the linear inversion scheme gives significantly larger retrieval errors, while the errors for the nonlinear scheme remain small.     

Rebirth of a dead Belousov-Zhabotinsky oscillator

Long time behaviors of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction are experimentally analyzed in a closed reactor. The amplitude of the oscillation is suddenly damped after about 10 h. After about 5-20 h, the dead oscillator is suddenly restored with nearly the same amplitude as before it stopped its oscillation for certain values of the concentrations of sodium bromate and malonic acid (MA). With the other domains of the concentrations, the oscillator simply damps and never restores its oscillation. The phase diagram of the different types of damping behaviors as a function of the concentrations is obtained.