Acid lactic lactobacilli as a biotechnological toll to improve food quality and human health.

The genus Lactobacillus has been widely used in food industry as starter or adjunct culture due to its probiotic features. Its biotechnological features improve the spectrum of uses of lactobacilli, which can affect its applicability directly. In this sense, this literature review gathers information and discusses the biotechnological potential of technological/probiotic lactobacilli aiming to improve food quality and human health.

Total synthesis of (-)-pironetin.

[structure: see text] The asymmetric total synthesis of pironetin, a compound that shows plant growth regulatory activity, immunosuppressive as well as a remarkable antitumoral activity, is described. The approach involves the use of three very efficient Evans oxazolidinone-mediated syn-aldol condensations, a high-yielding coupling between lithium acetylide ethylenediamine complex and a tosylate followed by methylation, and selective reduction to establish the C12-C13 (E) double bond.

High 1,5-anti stereoinduction in boron-mediated aldol reactions of methyl ketones.

[reaction: see text] We report herein a very efficient and synthetically useful 1,4-anti-1,5-anti boron-mediated aldol reaction of a chiral alpha-methyl-beta-alkoxy methyl ketone with achiral aldehydes.