Continuous flow synthesis of diaryl ketones by coupling of aryl Grignard reagents with acyl chlorides under mild conditions in the ecofriendly solvent 2-methyltetrahydrofuran.

An efficient continuous flow sequential synthesis of diaryl ketones was achieved by coupling of aryl Grignard reagents with acyl chlorides in the bio-derived "green" solvent 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF) under mild reaction conditions (ambient temperature, 1 hour), allowing a safe and on-demand generation of 2-(3-benzoylphenyl)propionitrile with a productivity of 3.16 g hour-1.

Synthesis and antitumor activity of feruloyl and caffeoyl derivatives.

We developed two efficient protocols for the synthesis of feruloyl and caffeoyl derivatives from commercial vanillin and veratraldehyde. Pharmacological activities were assessed against a panel of human cancer cell lines in vitro. Most synthesized compounds demonstrated attractive cytotoxicity. Several new compounds demonstrated significant antiproliferative and cytotoxic activities against HeLa and Bewo tumor cell lines. In particular, 5-nitro caffeic adamantyl ester showed broad spectrum of tumor inhibition in 10 cell lines, and reduced tumor weight by 36.7% in vivo when administered at a dose of 40 mg kg(-1).

3-Diethyl-carbamoyl-2',4'-difluoro-biphenyl-4-yl 2,6-dichloro-5-fluoro-pyridine-3-carboxyl-ate.

In the title compound, C(23)H(17)Cl(2)F(3)N(2)O(3), the mol-ecular conformation is significantly strained: atoms O, C(=O) and C attached to the central benzene ring deviate from its plane by 0.118 (2), 0.139 (2) and 0.174 (2) Å, respectively. In the crystal, weak C-H⋯O inter-actions link the mol-ecules into chains along [110]. The crystal packing exhibits short inter-molecular Cl⋯F [2.9840 (16) Å] and Cl⋯Cl [3.2957 (12) Å] contacts.

(22E,24R)-3α,5-Cyclo-5α-ergosta-22-en-6-one.

In the title mol-ecule, C(28)H(44)O, the two six-membered rings have a chair conformation and the two five-membered rings haveenvelope conformations. The crystal packing exhibits no short inter-molecular contacts. The absolute configuration was assigned to correspond with that of the known chiral centres in a precursor molecule, which remained unchanged during the synthesis of the title compound.

(22E,24R)-5α-Ergosta-2,22-dien-6-one.

In the title mol-ecule, C(28)H(44)O, two six-membered rings have regular chair conformations, while the six-membered ring containing the C=C double bond exhibits a distorted chair conformation. The five-membered ring adopts an envelope conformation. In the crystal, weak inter-molecular C-H⋯O inter-actions link mol-ecules into chains along the b axis. The absolute configuration was assigned to correspond with that of the known chiral centres in a precursor mol-ecule.

The synthesis and biological evaluation of some caffeic acid amide derivatives: E-2-cyano-(3-substituted phenyl)acrylamides.

A series of caffeic acid amide derivatives 2-cyano-(3-substituted phenyl)acrylamides were synthesized via Knoevenogal condensation of substituted benzaldehydes with cyanoacetamides. The structure of compound 1f was determined as E-isomer by X-ray diffractive analysis. The biological screening tests in vitro showed that compound 1b has obvious inhibitory activities against human gastric carcinoma cell line BGC-823, human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line KB and human hepatoma cell line BEL-7402 with IC(50) values of 5.6 microg/mL, 13.1 microg/mL and 12.5 microg/mL, respectively. Some preliminary structure-activity relationships (SAR) were also proposed which may provide a direction for further study.

Synthesis of trans-caffeate analogues and their bioactivities against HIV-1 integrase and cancer cell lines.

Forty caffeate analogues were synthesized via a convenient method starting from vanillin with moderate to good yields. The testing of biological activity of these compounds against HIV-1 integrase indicates that four compounds: bornyl caffeate, bornyl 2-nitrocaffeate, 5-nitrocaffeic acid and 5-nitrocaffeic acid phenethyl ester (5-nitroCAPE) possess a good HIV integrase inhibitory activity, IC(50) 19.9, 26.8, 25.0 and 13.5 microM , respectively. Twelve caffeate analogues were tested by MTT assay on growth of human hepatocellular carcinoma BEL-7404, human breast MCF-7 adenocarcinoma, human lung A549 adenocarcinoma and human gastric cancer BCG823 cell lines, respectively. And the best result is IC(50) 5.5 microM for CAPE against BEL-7404.

Synthesis and anticancer activity of thiosemicarbazones.

Twenty-six thiosemicarbazones (III-1-III-26) were synthesized via three steps starting from hydrazine hydrate and carbon disulfide. The testing of anticancer activity of these compounds in vitro against P-388, A-549, and SGC-7901 shows that compounds III-15 and III-16 possess a higher inhibitory ability for P-388 and SGC-7901. Further testing shows that the value of IC50 of compound III-16 against SGC-7901 reaches to 0.032 microM.