Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 18, Issue 22, 2014

This review is the first attempt to collect papers about possible use of ionic liquids for the chemical processing of oleochemical raw materials. The main focus is put on the processes based on vegetable oils, due to the fact that the majority of published reports in this area were dedicated to the synthesis of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME, biodiesel), which are originated mainly from vegetable oils. A significant amount of reports, including several review papers, were dedicated to the use of ionic liquids in the synthesis of biodiesel, but also other processes such as the synthesis of fatty acid esters or reactions with the use of unsaturated bonds still remain underrated. However, it is important enough to justify their collection in one paper in order to adequately appreciate the potential use of ionic liquids and benefits resulting from the chemistry of vegetable raw materials.

Carbocyclic nucleoside analogs are highly biologically relevant compounds. A large variety of them already serve as drugs or are investigated with this aim in mind. This review analyses syntheses of major types of carbocyclic nucleoside derivatives including those of pharmacological interest. The emphasis of this review is on entecavir, a derivative exhibiting selective activity at nanomolar level against hepatitis B virus. The first subject of this review is the summary of nucleoside analogs, mainly classification and synthetic strategies employed for the preparation of these derivatives. The second part focuses on the recent developments in the field of enanti oselective approaches of synthesis of entecavir and related compounds. This paper covers the literature from 1992 to 2013.

Ketoheptoses are rarely found in Nature, yet early on D-manno-heptulose could be isolated from Avocado. Following detection of D-manno-heptulose to act as an inhibitor of glucokinase the involvement of ketoheptoses in biomedical applications required synthetic approaches. This review focuses on syntheses of ketoheptoses by rearrangement reactions (de Bruyn-van Ekenstein, Amadori, Bilik) as well as chain elongation reactions (Henry, Grignard, exocyclic enolethers) and gives an overview of the synthetic activity from early syntheses to most recent improvements.

Stereoselective formation of six-membered carbacycles with biological and pharmaceutical relevance is one of the prime research areas in modern organic synthesis. Various innovative synthetic protocols involving asymmetric C-C bond forming reactions have been developed and exploited widely. The present review attempts to elaborate the original contributions and recent advancements made in this field for the stereoselective synthesis of a diverse array of asymmetric sixmembered carbacyclic compounds employing very simple and/or advanced organocatalytic domino reactions.

Mannich reaction has captured great attention and found usefulness as one of the most powerful synthetic methodologies for the carbon-carbon bond formation. Mannich reaction is also found to have a variety of applications in the total syntheses of natural and biologically active compounds in their crucial C-C bond forming steps. The present review is focused on the applications of Mannich reaction in total syntheses of natural products and some other complex targets.

The working of the silicon-based computers is based on semiconductor logic gates that perform binary arithmetic and logical operations. However, the continuous miniaturization of integrated circuits may reach atomic scales in a couple of decades. For achieving this miniaturization, great effort has been devoted to develop information processing and to increase computational complexity at the molecular level. In molecular logics, novel logic functions can be designed and performed that are not identical with existing processes operating in the electronic realm.