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The Eremophila plant family, which occurs in the arid zones of Australia, have witnessed extensive investigation, mostly inspired by Aboriginal traditional medicine. A wide and varied biological and phytochemical profile has been reported for over 18 individual species of Australian Eremophila , although E. macdonnellii from the Simpson Desert has not yet been investigated. Isolation and elucidation of one new and six known furofuran lignans are reported. The new lignan, epimethoxypiperitol, displayed moderate anti-cancer activity against the breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reported herein is a high throughput method to quantify in a single analysis the key volatiles that contribute to the aroma of commercially significant mango cultivars grown in Australia. The method constitutes stable isotope dilution analysis (SIDA) in conjunction with headspace (HS) solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with gas-chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS). Deuterium labelled analogues of the target analytes were either purchased commercially or synthesised for use as internal standards. Seven volatiles, hexanal, 3-carene, α-terpinene, p-cymene, limonene, α-terpinolene and ethyl octanoate, were targeted. The resulting calibration functions had determination coefficients (R 2 ) ranging from 0.93775 to 0.99741. High recovery efficiencies for spiked mango samples were also achieved. The method was applied to identify the key aroma volatile compounds produced by ‘Kensington Pride’ and ‘B74’ mango fruit and by ‘Honey Gold’ mango sap. This method represents a marked improvement over current methods for detecting and measuring concentrations of mango fruit and sap volatiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the difficulty in administering a safe dose regimen and reports of emerging resistance, warfarin (1) remains the most widely-used oral anticoagulant for the prevention and treatment of thrombosis in humans globally. Systematic substitution of the warfarin phenyl ring with either 1,3,5,7-cyclooctatetraene (COT) (2), cubane (3), cyclohexane (4) or cyclooctane (5) and subsequent evaluation against the target enzyme, vitamin K epoxide reductase (VKOR), facilitated interrogation of both steric and electronic properties of the phenyl pharmacophore. The tolerance of VKOR to further functional group modification (carboxylate 14 , PTAD adduct 15) was also investigated. The results demonstrate the importance of both annulene conferred π-interactions and ring size in the activity of warfarin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Multiple sclerosis-associated central neuropathic pain (MS-CNP) is difficult to alleviate with clinically used pain-killers and so there is a large unmet medical need for novel treatments for alleviating MS-CNP. Although (R)-alpha lipoic acid (ALA) evoked significant pain relief efficacy in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis-associated central neuropathic pain (MS-CNP), this dietary supplement has poor oral bioavailability due to low gastric stability. Eight ester prodrugs of the R enantiomer of ALA [(R)-ALA] were designed encompassing a range of biocompatible hydrophobic and hydrophilic features and synthesized in an effort to identify a prodrug candidate that was stable at gastric and upper gastrointestinal tract (GIT) pH, and that could be released (hydrolyzed by esterases) in the blood to (R)-ALA immediately after absorption into the portal vein (i.e., highly desirable features for pain relief development). These biocompatible hydrophobic and hydrophilic (R)-ALA pro-dugs underwent comprehensive preliminary screening to reveal PD-ALA4 HCl salt (10) as a promising candidate and PD-ALA 7 (8) could be a viable substitute, utilizing enzyme-free gastric and intestinal stability assessments, LogP evaluations, in vitro plasma stability and caco-2 cell monolayer permeability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]