Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 19, Issue 1, 2015

Tyrosinase (EC 1.14.18.1) is known to be the rate-limiting enzyme responsible for catalyzing the first two steps in the synthesis of melanin pigments that determine the coloring of hair, skin and eyes. Tyrosinase catalyzes two- sequence distinct bio-reactions in pigment productions: L-tyrosine to L-dopa (hydroxylation); and L-dopa to dopaquinone (oxidation). The inhibition of tyrosinase has been established as one of the major strat Read More

Microbial lipase has been recognized as one of the important biocatalysts due to its widely diversified enzymatic properties and substrate specificities. With the increased awareness of environmental protection and cost issue, lipase- catalyzed reactions have been viewed as the sustainable replacement for the chemical-driven reactions used in manufacture of biochemical products, biopharmaceuticals, nutraceut Read More

The pervasive exposure of the general public to chemicals found in cosmetic products underlines the importance of maintaining stringent safety evaluations of cosmetic ingredients. Cosmetics products are composed of many raw ingredient materials including fragrances, colors, thickeners, surfactants, foam agents, minerals, and preservatives. Whether the make-up substances are chemical, synthetic or natural resource, th Read More

Many algal extracts or algal bioactive ingredients have potential in suppressing cancer or different biological mechanisms. We previously found that aqueous extracts of Gracilaria tenuistipitata (AEGT) contained abundant antioxidants with protective effects against several reactive oxygen species (ROS) related DNA damages and diseases. However, the properties of crude extracts may limit its further applications. The aim of this st Read More

A remarkable example of the progress in metal-free oxidation is the development of oxidation with dioxiranes. The reactivity of these peroxides seems to be due to the tendency for easy electrophilic O-atom transfer to nucleophilic substrates. This has been applied in order to achieve high regio- and stereoselective epoxidation and oxyfunctionalizations of target molecules. This review addresses a new approach consisting o Read More

Recent events related to the terrorist threats make it clear that real-time and on-site detection of explosives and chemical warfare agents (CWAs) are in an urgent demand. As an artificial mimic of natural receptors, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have already been utilized for the detection of hazardous materials due to their strong mechanical strength, flexibility, long-time storage and low cost. The MIP sensors sh Read More

Nafion-H®, a perfluoroalkanesulfonic acid resin has emerged as one of the promising and potential heterogeneous catalysts. It has been widely applied as a green, efficient and a recyclable heterogeneous solid acid catalyst in diverse organic synthesis. The present review highlights the significant advancements which have been made in the last few decades in the field of Nafion-H® catalyzed organic reactions of synthe Read More

In this work we report the first small and wide-angle X-Ray diffraction study (S-WAXS) of L-proline ester based ionic liquids, a family of chiral ionic liquids (CILs) with several potential useful applications. Along the synthetic pathway that was followed to obtain the already described systems in ultra-pure form, some new compounds were synthesized. Noteworthy differences were observed in the SAXS low Q peak positions trend Read More