Identification of a New Antibacterial Sulfur Compound from Seeds.

L. (radish), a member of Brassicaceae, is widely used in traditional medicine in various cultures for treatment of several diseases and disorders associated with microbial infections. The antibacterial activity of the different plant parts has been mainly attributed to several isothiocyanate (ITC) compounds.

NMR-based screening of membrane protein ligands.

Membrane proteins pose problems for the application of NMR-based ligand-screening methods because of the need to maintain the proteins in a membrane mimetic environment such as detergent micelles: they add to the molecular weight of the protein, increase the viscosity of the solution, interact with ligands non-specifically, overlap with protein signals, modulate protein dynamics and conformational exchange and compromise sensitivity by adding highly intense background signals. In this article, we discuss the special considerations arising from these problems when conducting NMR-based ligand-binding studies with membrane proteins. While the use of (13)C and (15)N isotopes is becoming increasingly feasible, (19)F and (1)H NMR-based approaches are currently the most widely explored.

Parallel synthesis of arrays of amino-acid-derived isocyanoamides useful as starting materials in IMCR.

Arrays of amino-acid-derived isocyanoamides are conveniently produced on a multigram scale in one step by the solventless aminolysis of the corresponding methyl esters with primary or secondary aliphatic amines. Most of the corresponding isocyanides precipitate during the reaction and can be filtered to yield highly pure, colorless, and odorless solids. They are potentially useful in the combinatorial chemistry of multicomponent reactions.

Total Synthesis of Uvaricin.

The first total synthesis of naturally occurring (+)-uvaricin was achieved using three consecutive Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation (AD) reactions to place the necessary oxygen functions on a "naked" carbon skeleton in a regio- and enantioselectively controlled manner. The appropriate bis-THF ring system was constructed using a Williamson type etherification reaction on a functionalized bis-mesylate intermediate.