Mini-Reviews in Organic Chemistry - Volume 4, Issue 3, 2007

The asymmetric transfer hydrogenation is a highly versatile tool for the stereoselective reduction of C=O and C=N prochiral groups. Carbonyl compounds have been the most frequently used as the synthetic substrates but imines were much less popular despite their importance as the sources of chiral amines. This review summarizes recent development in a search for more effective ligands and conditions of the reduc Read More

Carbasugars (a term coined for the carbocyclic analogues of carbohydrates) play a prominent role within the broad field of carbohydrate mimetics. Natural carbasugars, either as single molecules or as subunits of more complex molecules, have shown to display interesting biological activities. On the other hand, synthetic carbasugars have also shown similar biological activities. Normally, the construction of the carbocyclic fra Read More

The term ‘divergent catalysis’ describes different catalytic chemical reactions that occur with the same substrates (reactants) under controllable conditions, especially using different catalysts. Various substrates were found to work with versatile reactivity under different catalytic conditions, resulting in the formation of different products. However, the examples of rationally designed divergent catalysis are still few. This revie Read More

This mini-review outlines recent (until the end of 2006) key developments in the use of β-cyclodextrin as a catalyst in organic synthesis. β-cyclodextrin is a water soluble supramolecular catalyst especially useful for transformations such as oxirane ring-opening, aziridine oxidation of alcohols, hydrolysis of phosphate esters and amidation of acids. It has been used for the selective synthesis of 2,6- naphthalene dicarbo Read More

Aqueous-organic two-phase systems are important tools in organic synthesis to enable reactions that employ compounds with incompatible solubilities. For technical application, different strategies have been developed to prevent coalescence without vast energy input and deactivation of sensitive compounds. A particularly promising one is the solidification of the aqueous phase by forming small distinguished compartmen Read More

Species and even subspecies of fluorescent members of the Pseudomonadaceae can be identified by determining the nature of their main siderophores (iron chelating metabolites), the pyoverdins. This can be done by establishing their electrophoretic behavior and by uptake studies using 59Fe3+ labeled comparison compounds (“siderotyping”). Siderotyping requires a large collection of comparison material. Search Read More

The objectives of this review are mainly reactions of alkalides with various classes of organic compounds. Mechanisms of these processes are discussed taking into account our present stage of knowledge. A new method for the preparation of crystalline nanomaterials via homogeneous reduction of transition and post-transition metal salts is also presented.