Overcoming the Usual Reactivity of ß-Nitroenones: Synthesis of Polyfunctionalized Homoallylic Alcohols and Conjugated Nitrotriene Systems.

Herein, we report a new application of ß-nitroenones as valuable building blocks for the preparation of polyfunctionalized homoallylic alcohols; they can be used as key precursors of conjugated nitrotriene systems. The synthesis of homoallylic alcohols was performed exploiting the chemoselective addition of metal allylating agents to the ketone moiety vs the nitroalkenyl group. The conversion of alcohols into nitrotrienes was achieved under Lewis-acid-promoted conditions. Both classes of compounds were obtained in good to excellent yields.

A New Valuable Synthesis of Polyfunctionalized Furans Starting from ß-Nitroenones and Active Methylene Compounds.

Highly functionalized furans are the key scaffolds of many pharmaceuticals and bioactive natural products. Herein, we disclose a new fruitful synthesis of polyfunctionalized furans starting from ß-nitroenones and α-functionalized ketones. The protocol involves two steps promoted by solid supported species, and it provides the title targets from satisfactory to very good overall yields and in an excellent diastereomeric ratios.

Synthetic Approach to the Preparation of (2-Acetoxy)allyl Nitro Compounds.

A synthetic approach to a new class of allyl nitro derivatives is reported. (2-Acetoxy)allyl nitro compounds have been prepared for the first time in a four-step procedure by a preliminary reaction of nitroalkanes with 2-(phenylselenyl)acetaldehyde. After the acetylation of the obtained nitro alcohols, the unsaturation is installed by an oxidation reaction involving the phenylselenyl group followed by a thermal elimination. The oxidation process is accomplished under flow conditions ensuring a notable lowering of overoxidation by products observed in batch.

A quantitative headspace-solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-flame ionization detector method to analyze short chain free fatty acids in rat feces.

This study sought to develop and validate a quantitative method to analyze short chain free fatty acids (SCFAs) in rat feces by solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography (SPME-GC) using the salt mixture ammonium sulfate and sodium dihydrogen phosphate as salting out agent. Conditioning and extraction time, linearity, limits of detection and quantification, repeatability, and recovery were evaluated. The proposed method allows quantification with improved sensitivity as compared with other methods exploiting SPME-GC. The method has been applied to analyze rat fecal samples, quantifying acetic, propionic, isobutyric, butyric, isopentanoic, pentanoic, and hexanoic acids.

A New One-Pot Synthesis of Quinoline-2-carboxylates under Heterogeneous Conditions.

Quinoline-2-carboxylates are an important subclass of quinoline derivatives largely present in a variety of biologically active molecules, as well as useful ligands in metal-catalyzed reactions. Herein, we present a new one-pot protocol for synthesizing this class of derivatives starting from ß-nitroacrylates and 2-aminobenzaldehydes. In order to optimize the protocol, we investigated several reaction conditions, obtaining the best results using the 2-tert-Butylimino-2-diethylamino-1,3-dimethylperhydro-1,3,2-diazaphosphorine (BEMP) as solid base, in acetonitrile. Finally, we demonstrated the generality of our approach over several substrates which led to synthesize a plethora of functionalized quinolines-2-carboxylate derivatives in good overall yields.

Easy and direct conversion of tosylates and mesylates into nitroalkanes.

Tosylates and mesylates were directly converted into the corresponding nitroalkanes, by their treatment with tetrabutylammonium nitrite (TBAN) under mild conditions.

Novel terephthalamide diol monomers synthesis from PET waste to Poly(Urethane acrylates).

Due to its excellent properties, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is one of the most produced and consumed polymers. Among plastics, it represents the main contributor to environmental pollution. Following the circular economy model, the chemical upcycling of PET reduces the amount of waste generated and transforms it into high-value products. The depolymerization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) into oligomers or monomers leads to forming a library of reactive molecules involved in different polymerization processes to obtain compounds with improved properties. Herein, several ß-hydroxy amines were synthesized and used for the chemical recycling of water bottle waste by an environmental benefit aminolysis process to get very useful new terephthalamide diol monomers. The recycled diol monomers were subsequently exploited to synthesize poly(urethane acrylates) (PUAs) UV-curable coatings, and their chemical, thermal and mechanical characterizations were performed. The results show the great potential of the developed synthesis protocols to obtain PUAs with final properties that can be modulated to meet the requirements of different applications.

Methylcarbonate and bicarbonate phosphonium salts as catalysts for the nitroaldol (Henry) reaction.

Phosphonium ionic liquids exchanged with bicarbonate and methylcarbonate anions (CILs) exhibit catalytic performances comparable to those of sterically hindered (non nucleophilic) organosuperbases such as DBU. At 25-50 °C, under solventless conditions, CILs efficiently catalyze the Henry addition of different aldehydes and ketones to nitroalkanes: not only they allow the selective formation of nitroaldols but they unlock a novel high-yielding access to dinitromethyl derivatives of ketones.

Effect of ring size on the tautomerization and ionization reaction of cyclic 2-nitroalkanones: an experimental and theoretical study.

The keto-enol tautomerism of some cyclic 2-nitroalkanones was studied in cyclohexane. Keto-enol equilibrium constants, K(T), at 25 °C were obtained from (1)H NMR spectra. The relative enol content for the investigated ketones as a function of ring size decreases in the order 6 > 7 > 11 > 12 > 15. This trend apparently is different from that observed in water. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been performed to rationalize the effects of ring size and of the solvent on tautomerism. The acidity constants, K(a)(KH), for the different keto tautomers were measured spectrophotometrically at 25 °C in buffered aqueous solutions. No simple correlations between K(a)(KH) and ring size was observed, and this is in agreement with a DFT analysis performed on the same compounds.

Nitroalkanes as new, ideal precursors for the synthesis of benzene derivatives.

Nitroalkanes have emerged, in the past few years, as powerful acyclic building blocks to synthesize polyfunctionalized benzene derivatives, avoiding any serious regiochemical ambiguities due to the activating/deactivating and orienting effects of the substituents. Many of these procedures are realized in a one-pot process or a few-step sequence. This feature article describes recent results, mainly from our group, in this field.

Selective nitroaldol condensations over heterogeneous catalysts in the presence of supercritical carbon dioxide.

At 40-60 degrees C, in the presence of heterogeneous catalysts based on Al2O3, supercritical carbon dioxide not only acts as a good solvent for the reaction of aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes with 1-nitroalkanes but, most importantly, it also allows the selectivity to be tuned between the competitive formation of beta-nitroalcohols and nitroalkenes (from the Henry reaction and the nitroaldol condensation, respectively). In particular, when the pressure (and the density) of the supercritical phase is enhanced from 80 to 140 bar, the nitroalkene's selectivity increases, on average, from approximately 60 to >90%. Experiments show that, in the same pressure range, a steep increase of the concentration profiles of reactant aldehydes takes place. By contrast, under solvent-free conditions, the reaction usually proceeds with a higher conversion, but nitroalkanols are the major products.

Nitroalkanes as central reagents in the synthesis of spiroketals.

Nitroalkanes can be profitably employed as carbanionic precursors for the assembly of dihydroxy ketone frameworks, suitable for the preparation of spiroketals. The carbon-carbon bond formation is carried out exploiting nitroaldol and Michael reactions, while the nitro to carbonyl conversion (Nef reaction) ensures the correct introduction of the keto group. Several spiroketal systems endowed with considerable biological activity can be prepared using this synthetic strategy.

Olive oil polyphenols: A quantitative method by high-performance liquid-chromatography-diode-array detection for their determination and the assessment of the related health claim.

In order to assess if an extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) can be acknowledged with the health claim related to olive oil polyphenols (Reg. EU n.432/2012), a new method to quantify these species in EVOO, by means of liquid-liquid extraction followed by HPLC-DAD/MS/MS of the hydroalcoholic extract, has been developed and validated. Different extraction procedures, different types of reverse-phase analytical columns (Synergi Polar, Spherisorb ODS2 and Kinetex) and eluents have been tested. The chromatographic column Synergi Polar (250×4.6mm, 4µm), never used before in this kind of application, provided the best results, with water and methanol/isopropanol (9/1) as eluents. The method allows the quantification of the phenolic alcohols tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol, the phenolic acids vanillic, p-coumaric and ferulic acids, secoiridoids derivatives, the lignans, pinoresinol and acetoxypinoresinol and the flavonoids luteolin and apigenin. The new method has been applied to 20 commercial EVOOs belonging to two different price range categories (3.78-5.80 euros/L and 9.5-25.80 euros/L) and 5 olive oils. The obtained results highlight that acetoxypinoresinol, ferulic acid, vanillic acid and the total non secoiridoid phenolic substances resulted to be significantly higher in HEVOOs than in LEVOOs (P=0.0026, 0.0217, 0.0092, 0.0003 respectively). For most of the samples analysed there is excellent agreement between the results obtained by applying the HPLC method adopted by the International Olive Council and the results obtained by applying the presented HPLC method. Results obtained by HPLC methods have been also compared with the ones obtained by the colorimetric Folin-Ciocalteu method.

Solventless clay-promoted Friedel-Crafts reaction of indoles with alpha-amido sulfones: unexpected synthesis of 3-(1-arylsulfonylalkyl) indoles.

Friedel-Crafts reaction of indoles with alpha-amido sulfones in the presence of montmorillonite K-10 leads unexpectedly to 3-(1-arylsulfonylalkyl) indoles in good yield. The obtained products can be further desulfonylated under reductive or alkylative conditions giving linear and branched 3-substituted indoles.

Lipid nutritional value of legumes: Evaluation of different extraction methods and determination of fatty acid composition.

This study sought to contribute to the assessment of the nutritional properties of legumes by determining the fatty acid (FA) composition of 29 legume samples after the evaluation of nine extraction methods. The Folch method and liquid-solid extraction with hexane/isopropanol or with hexane/acetone were investigated, as was the effect of previous hydration of samples. Soxhlet extractions were also evaluated with different solvent mixtures. Results on FA composition using the hexane/isopropanol extraction method were the same in terms of FA composition of the Folch method, but the extraction yield was only around 20-40% of that of the Folch method preceded by hydration. Some types of legumes showed particularly interesting values for the ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) n-6/n-3, such as lentils, with the value of 4.0, and Azuki beans, at 3.2. In lentils, the PUFAs% ranged from 42.0% to 57.4%, while in Azuki beans it was 57.5%.

One pot synthesis of 3,5-alkylated acetophenone and methyl benzoate derivatives via an anionic domino process.

The reaction of primary 1,3-dinitroalkanes with 2-ene-1,4-dione or 2-ene-4-oxo ester derivatives in acetonitrile with DBU as base, allow the one pot synthesis of 3,5-alkylated acetophenones and methyl benzoate derivatives respectively via an anionic domino process.

A salting out system for improving the efficiency of the headspace solid-phase microextraction of short and medium chain free fatty acids.

Given the importance of short and medium chain free fatty acids (FFAs) in several fields, this study sought to improve the extraction efficiency of the solid-phase microextraction (SPME) of FFAs by evaluating salting out agents that appear promising for this application. The salts ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4) and sodium dihydrogen phosphate (NaH2PO4) were tried on their own and in combination (3.7/1), in four different total amounts, as salting out agents in the headspace-SPME-gas chromatographic (HS-SPME-GC) analysis of the FFAs from acetic acid (C2) to decanoic acid (C10). Their performance in a model system of an aqueous standard mixture of FFAs at a pH of 3.5 was compared to that of the more commonly used sodium chloride (NaCl) and sodium sulfate (Na2SO4). All of the salts and salt systems evaluated, in proper amount, gave improved results compared to NaCl (saturated), which instead gave interesting results only for the least volatile FFAs C8 and C10. For C2-C6, the salt system that gave the best results compared to NaCl was (NH4)2SO4/NaH2PO4, in the highest of the four amounts evaluated, with factor increases between 1.2 and 4.1-fold, and NaH2PO4, between 1.0 and 4.3-fold. The SPME extraction efficiency given by the mixture (NH4)2SO4/NaH2PO4 was also assessed on biological and food samples, confirming that overall it performed better than NaCl.

Synthesis, modeling, and anti-tubulin activity of a D-seco paclitaxel analogue.

[reaction: see text] We have previously described a model of paclitaxel-microtubule binding that led to the prediction that analogues of paclitaxel lacking any D ring could stabilize microtubules as well as paclitaxel if the substituent present at C4 did not have unfavorable steric interactions with the binding pocket. We report the synthesis of a 4-methyl paclitaxel analogue, compound 1, which bears this prediction out. Compound 1 is as potent as paclitaxel at microtubule stabilization in vitro; however, it has only about one-four-hundredth the cytotoxicity of paclitaxel.