On the susceptibility of organic peroxy bonds to hydride reduction.

Reduction of organic molecules that contain a peroxy bond is broadly considered as a "risky" and uncertain operation when cleavage of the peroxy linkage is not desired. For this reason, such reduction steps are normally avoided at the planning stage of the synthesis when possible. As a natural consequence, the information in the literature about the susceptibility of organic peroxy bonds to reducing species is scant.

Probing the possible molecular origin of the highly selective toxicity of antimalarial peroxide qinghaosu (artemisinin).

The radicals derived from qinghaosu (artemisinin) showed strong tendency for intramolecular reactions and thus are unlikely to cause so much damage to cells as simple alkyl radicals, giving a clue to the extraordinarily low toxicity of this radical precursor at therapeutic doses.