A Decade of Successful Collaborations in Nutritional Compound Process Research and Development.

Collaborations between academia and industry are vital for modern industrial research and development projects, combining the best of both worlds to develop sustainable chemical processes. Herein we summarize a number of successful cooperations between DSM Nutritional Products and Swiss academic institutions that have been carried out over approximately the past decade. A wide variety of reactions and processes have been investigated with experts located in Switzerland.

From Sugars to Nutritional Products - Active Ingredients.

A modern trend to carbon dioxide neutral production processes is based on renewable raw materials derived from sugars. Herein, an overview on modern approaches to fine chemicals for the nutritional industry is presented. In comparison to the traditional fossil-fuel-based processes the development of sustainable alternative transformations is necessary to enable the full potential of the new sustainable feedstocks.

Adequate Vitamin D Intake Cannot Be Achieved within Carbon Emission Limits Unless Food Is Fortified: A Simulation Study.

This study applied linear programming using a Dutch "model diet" to simulate the dietary shifts needed in order to optimize the intake of vitamin D and to minimize the carbon footprint, considering the popularity of the diet. Scenarios were modelled without and with additional fortified bread, milk, and oil as options in the diets. The baseline diet provided about one fifth of the adequate intake of vitamin D from natural food sources and voluntary vitamin D-fortified foods.

One hundred years of vitamins-a success story of the natural sciences.

The discovery of vitamins as essential factors in the diet was a scientific breakthrough that changed the world. Diseases such as scurvy, rickets, beriberi, and pellagra were recognized to be curable with an adequate diet. These diseases had been prevalent for thousands of years and had a dramatic impact on societies as well as on economic development.

Large-scale production of bioactive ingredients as supplements for healthy human and animal nutrition.

In this review, synthetic strategies and the development of environmentally benign methods for the production of economically important vitamins, carotenoids, and nutraceuticals used as food and feed supplements are illustrated by selected examples. The application of efficient catalytic transformations in multi-step chemical syntheses of such natural products enables technically feasible and cost-effective processes. For the preparation of fat-soluble (isoprenoid) vitamins A and E and the water-soluble vitamin (+)-biotin, homogeneous metal catalysis, including enantioselective transformations, heterogeneous and enzymatic catalysis serve as key methodologies.

Photolysis and thermolysis of platinum(IV) 2,2'-bipyridine complexes lead to identical platinum(II)-DNA adducts.

Two Pt(IV) and two Pt(II) complexes containing a 2,2'-bipyridine ligand were treated with a short DNA oligonucleotide under light irradiation at 37°C or in the dark at 37 and 50°C. Photolysis and thermolysis of the Pt(IV) complexes led to spontaneous reduction of the Pt(IV) to the corresponding Pt(II) complexes and to binding of Pt(II) 2,2'-bipyridine complexes to N7 of guanine. When the reduction product was [Pt(bpy)Cl(2)], formation of bis-oligonucleotide adducts was observed, whereas [Pt(bpy)(MeNH(2))Cl](+) gave monoadducts, with chloride ligands substituted in both cases.

Spontaneous reduction of mixed 2,2'-bipyridine/methylamine/chloro complexes of Pt(IV) in water in the presence of light is accompanied by complex isomerization, loss of methylamine, and formation of a strong oxidant, presumably HOCl.

Three 2,2'-bipyridine (2,2'-bpy) complexes of Pt(IV) have been synthesized, characterized by X-ray crystallography, and their solution behavior in D(2)O studied by (1)H NMR spectroscopic analysis: mer-[PtCl(3)(2,2'-bpy)(MeNH(2))]ClH(2)O (4), trans-[PtCl(2)(2,2'-bpy)(MeNH(2))(2)]Cl(2) (5), and trans-[Pt (2,2'-bpy)(MeNH(2))(2)(OH)(2)]Cl(2) (6; MeNH(2)=methylamine). Complexes 4 and 5 undergo hydrolysis of the Cl(-) ions, both in the dark and daylight, as evident from a drop in the pH value. Two solvolysis products were detected in the case of 4, which is indicative of species with equatorial and axial OH(-) groups.