Natural Product-Derived Chiral Pyrrolidine-2,5-diones, Their Molecular Structures and Conversion to Pharmacologically Important Skeletons.

The versatility of the natural products (2,3)- and (2,3)-3-hydroxy-5-oxotetrahydrofuran-2,3-dicarboxylic acids ( and ), isolated in large amounts from tropical plant sources, has been demonstrated by the construction of 3-substituted and 3,4-disubstituted chiral pyrrolidine-2,5-diones. The absolute configurations of chiral pyrrolidine-2,5-diones have been ascertained using chiroptical spectroscopic methods and/or single-crystal XRD data. A combination of different reaction strategies delivering a diverse matrix of fused heterocyclic ring systems is presented.

Chiroptical spectroscopy of natural products: avoiding the aggregation effects of chiral carboxylic acids.

Determination of the absolute configurations and predominant conformations of chiral natural products, occurring as carboxylic acids, using chiroptical spectroscopic methods becomes challenging due to the formation of solute aggregates (in the form of dimers, etc.) and/or solute-solvent complexes resulting from intermolecular hydrogen bonding with solvent. A hypothesis that such aggregation effects can be avoided by using corresponding sodium salts or acid anhydrides for chiroptical spectroscopic measurements has been tested.

A single chiroptical spectroscopic method may not be able to establish the absolute configurations of diastereomers: dimethylesters of hibiscus and garcinia acids.

Electronic circular dichroism (ECD), optical rotatory dispersion (ORD), and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra of hibiscus acid dimethyl ester have been measured and analyzed in combination with quantum chemical calculations of corresponding spectra. These results, along with those reported previously for garcinia acid dimethyl ester, reveal that none of these three (ECD, ORD, or VCD) spectroscopic methods, in isolation, can unequivocally establish the absolute configurations of diastereomers. This deficiency is eliminated when a combined spectral analysis of either ECD and VCD or ORD and VCD methods is used.

Importance of solvation in understanding the chiroptical spectra of natural products in solution phase: garcinia acid dimethyl ester.

The optical rotatory dispersion (ORD), electronic circular dichroism (ECD), and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra of (+)-garcinia acid dimethyl ester have been measured and analyzed by comparison with the corresponding spectra predicted by quantum chemical methods for (2S,3S)-garcinia acid dimethyl ester. For solution-phase calculations the recently developed continuous surface charge polarizable continuum model (PCM) has been used. It is found that gas-phase predictions and PCM predictions at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pVDZ level yield nearly mirror-image ECD spectra in the 190-250 nm region for the same absolute configuration and that gas-phase ECD predictions lead to incorrect absolute configuration.

Assay of tinidazole in human serum by high-performance thin-layer chromatography--comparison with high-performance liquid chromatography.

Determination of tinidazole in human serum by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) is presented. It includes use of 10 x 10 cm plates coated with silica gel 60 and chloroform-acetonitrile-acetic acid (60 + 40 + 2) as mobile phase. Quantitation was performed by densitometry at 320 nm.