Isolation of a Novel Polyketide from Neodidymelliopsis sp.

Fungi have become an invaluable source of bioactive natural products, with more than 5 million species of fungi spanning the globe. Fractionation of crude extract of Neodidymelliopsis sp., led to the isolation of a novel polyketide, (2Z)-cillifuranone (1) and five previously reported natural products, (2E)-cillifuranone (2), taiwapyrone (3), xylariolide D (4), pachybasin (5), and N-(5-hydroxypentyl)acetamide (6). It was discovered that (2Z)-cillifuranone (1) was particularly sensitive to ambient temperature and light resulting in isomerisation to (2E)-cillifuranone (2). Structure elucidation of all the natural products were conducted by NMR spectroscopic techniques. The antimicrobial activity of 2, 3, and 5 were evaluated against a variety of bacterial and fungal pathogens. A sodium [1-¹³C] acetate labelling study was conducted on Neodidymelliopsis sp. and confirmed that pachybasin is biosynthesised through the acetate polyketide pathway.     

Enantioselective Cross-couplings between Halide Derivatives and Organometallics by Using Iron and Cobalt Catalysts: Formation of C−C Bonds

This review highlights the recent achievements of iron- and cobalt-catalyzed enantioselective cross-couplings of halide derivatives with organometallic reagents for the construction of C-C bonds. Synthetic applications of enantioselective cross-couplings to natural products and biologically active compounds are also covered showing the power of these cross-couplings in organic synthesis.     

Three‐unit semicircles curve: A compact 3D graphical representation of DNA sequences based on classifications of nucleotides

A new three‐dimensional graphical representation of DNA sequences, three‐unit semicircles (TUS)‐curve, which maps a given sequence into a dot sequences embedded in three‐unit semicircles, is proposed based on three biclassifications of nucleotides. TUS‐curve has the merit of compactness and could avoid the degeneracy and loss of information. The geometrical center of the curve, which indicates the distribution of base frequencies of the corresponding DNA sequence, is extracted and applied to analyze the similarity of various species. Phylogenetic tree of 11 species based on their first exons of β‐globin genes showed that the TUS‐curve is a powerful tool to get valuable biological information. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011     

Formation of tryptanthrin compounds upon Oxone-induced dimerization of indole-3-carbaldehydes

Tryptanthrin is a natural product with numerous important pharmacological properties. Tryptanthrin and its analogs are commonly prepared by condensation of isatoic anhydride and isatin. In this Letter we investigate the formation of tryptanthrin derivatives upon Oxone-induced oxidative dimerization of indole-3-carbaldehydes.     

Estimation of the solubility product of hydrocalumite–hydroxide,a layered double hydroxide with the formula of [Ca2Al(OH)6]OH·nH2O

From aqueous NaOH/Ca(OH)₂/NaAl(OH)₄ mixtures, after allowing short reaction times we observed the precipitation of Ca(OH)₂(s) at lower, and a mixture of Ca(OH)₂(s) and a layered double hydroxide, hydrocalumite (HC) at higher aluminate concentrations. From the maximum aluminate concentration, at which the equilibrium solid phase is still portlandite (i.e., further increase in the aluminate concentration results in HC appearing in the precipitate beside the portlandite), the concentration based solubility products of two polymorphs of HC with the formula of [Ca₂Al(OH)₆]OH·nH₂O (differing in n) has been estimated and was found to be log L_HC=−11.4 at 25 °C and −12.1 at 75 °C, respectively (where L_HC=[Ca²⁺]²[Al(OH)₄⁻][OH⁻]³) and at constant ionic strength (I=1 M NaCl). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published estimate for the solubility product of hydrocalumite. Additionally, from the composition obtained for NaOH/Ca(OH)₂/NaAl(OH)₄ mother liquors in equilibrium with Ca(OH)₂(s), attempts were made to extract the formation constant of the ion pair CaAl(OH)₄⁺. It was found, that the effects caused by the supposed formation of this solution species are too small to be reliably determined, which allowed an upper estimate for its formation constant, K, to be suggested in the temperature range of 25–75 °C (K<200 and 40 M⁻¹ at 25 and 75 °C, respectively).     

Ion Product of Pure Water Characterized by Physics-Based Water Model

Pure water has been characterized for nearly a century, by its dissociation into hydronium (H₃O)¹⁺ and hydroxide (HO)^1- ions. As a chemical equilibrium reaction, the equilibrium constant, known as the ion product or the product of the equilibrium concentration of the two ion species, has been extensively measured by chemists over the liquid water temper-ature and pressure range. The experimental data have been nonlinear least-squares fitted to chemical thermodynamic-based equilibrium equations, which have been accepted as the industrial standard for 35 years. In this study, a new and statistical-physics-based water ion product equation is presented, in which, the ions are the positively charged protons and the negatively charged proton-holes or prohols. Nonlinear least squares fits of our equation to the experimental data in the 0-100 ℃ pure liquid water range, give a factor of two better precision than the 35-year industrial standard.     

Application of Prins cyclization to the total synthesis of (+)-decytospolides A and B

(+)-Decytospolides A and B, natural products containing the tetrahydropyran skeleton, were synthesized via Prins cyclization as the key step.     

Semi-concurrent vector fields in Finsler geometry

In the present paper, we give an answer to a question which is closely related to doubly warped product of Finsler metrics: ‘‘For each n, is there an n-dimensional Finsler manifold $(M,F)$, admitting a non-constant smooth function f on M such that $\frac{\partial f}{\partial x^i}\frac{\partial g^{ij}}{\partial y^k}=0$?”. We relate the preceding mentioned condition to different concepts appeared and studied in Finsler geometry. We introduce and investigate the notion of a semi concurrent vector field on a Finsler manifold. We show that some special Finsler manifolds admitting such vector fields turn out to be Riemannian. We prove that Tachibana's characterization of Finsler manifolds admitting a concurrent vector field leads to Riemannian metrics. Various examples for conic Finsler spaces that admit semi-concurrent vector field are presented.