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Experimentally determined barriers to O-acyl group topomerization in mixed anhydrides composed of β-disubstituted carboxylic acids and cyclic thiohydroxamic acid N-hydroxy-4-methylthiazole-2(3H)-thione were located in the range of ΔG‡320=68±8 kJ mol−1 (DNMR). According to modeling studies, the underlying exchange process is proposed to occur via rotation about the N,O bond for torsional movement of the O-acyl group past the heterocyclic 4-methyl substituent. The energetically lowest pathway for passing the O-acyl entity by the thione sulfur, is predicted to occur via sequential rocking about the C sp 2 ,O single bond in combination with an interlaced twist about the N,O axis.

An efficient evaluation procedure for the chemical screening and on-line structural elucidation of dimeric naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids has been developed. The method is based on the lead tetraacetate oxidation of the central binaphthalene core of the alkaloids. UV spectra of the extracts after addition of the oxidant show, in the presence of naphthylisoquinoline dimers, the appearance of a characteristic long-wavelength absorption indicative of dinaphthoquinones. The efficiency and relevance of the method has been demonstrated in the discovery of a constitutionally and configurationally new dimeric naphthylisoquinoline alkaloid, named ancistrogriffithine A (4), from the previously uninvestigated Asian liana Ancistrocladus griffithii. After verification of this screening result by LC−ESI-MS/MS, the constitution and the relative configuration of the compound were elucidated on line, by LC−NMR and LC−CD on the extract. Using an LC−NMR-WET-ROESY experiment, it was possible for the first time to determine the relative axial configuration of a natural biaryl compound on line, by observing long-range ROE interactions. Finally, an oxidative degradation right on the extract delivered the absolute configuration of 4, without isolation of the alkaloid. Ancistrogriffithine A is the as yet only dimeric naphthylisoquinoline from an Asian Ancistrocladaceae plant.

Two inhibitors of membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) were isolated from a marine sponge Cribrochalina sp. Their structures were elucidated as unusual phosphorylated sterol sulfates by spectroscopic and chemical methods. One of the sterol sulfates was found to be identical to haplosamate A, whose structure was previously proposed to be a steroidal sulfamate ester, which led to structure revisions of both haplosamates A and B. The absolute stereochemistry of haplosamate A was determined by chemical transformation and the modified Mosher's method. The sterol sulfates inhibited MT1-MMP with IC50 values of 150 and 160 μg/mL, respectively. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Configurationally unstable biaryl lactones of type (M)-1 ⇌ (P)-1 and ring-opened 2-acyl-2‘-hydroxy biaryl compounds of type (M)-4 ⇌ (P)-4 are versatile precursors for the atroposelective preparation of axially chiral biaryls. The activation barriers of their atropisomerization process, which constitutes a fundamental precondition for the dynamic kinetic resolution, were determined by dynamic NMR spectroscopy for rapid processes and by HPLC-monitored racemization of enantiomerically enriched material for smaller interconversion rates. For the lactones, the free activation energies ΔG⧧298 increase with the steric demand of the substituent R ortho to the biaryl axis in the series H < OMe (t1/2 ≈ ms) < Me (t1/2 ≈ s) < Et < i-Pr (t1/2 ≈ min) < t-Bu (t1/2 ≈ d). The formally ring-opened 2-acyl-2‘-hydroxy biaryls, which interconvert via the lactol isomers 5 as the cyclic (and thus configurationally less stable) intermediates, have a significantly slower atropisomerization rate as a result of the high loss in acti...

The activation parameters [ΔG# (200 K), ΔH#, and ΔS#] for the degenerate Cope rearrangements of barbaralane (1a) and several semibullvalenes (3a, 7a, 8a), and for those of a number of their 3,7- and 2,6-disubstituted derivatives, have been determined by variable-temperature carbon-13 NMR spectroscopy at 126 and 151 MHz. the disubstituted compounds studied include the barbaralanes 1c, d, e, h, j, k, and 2e, h, j, and the semibullvalenes 3d, e, h, 4e, h, i, l, m, and 5h–8h. Careful attention has been given to the measurement of temperatures. The data for these compound, together with those for related compounds previously reported in the literature, show that conjugating subsituents (e. g. aryl, CH, CO2R) in the 2,6 positions lower the barriers of the degenerate Cope rearrangement, whereas substituents that are electron-withdrawing through the inductive effect (e. g. Cl, CF3, SO2Ar) retard the reaction. Substituents in the 3,7-positons have little effect or are rate-retarding. The presence of 1,5-tri- and tetramethylene bridges in semibullvalenes accelerates the rearrangements, the effect being larger in the case of the former.

The first synthesis of the macrocyclic natural product xestodecalactone A, a metabolite of a sponge-derived fungus, is described. By the use of methyl 5-hydroxyhexanoate in its R- or S-configured form, or as its racemate as the precursors, both enantiomers of xestodecalactone A as well as the racemic compound were obtained. Comparison of these synthetic products with the natural product by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and by HPLC on a chiral phase revealed the natural product to have the (R)-configuration.

[reaction: see text] UV/vis spectra of thermochromic semibullvalenes 1 and barbaralanes 2, which undergo rapid degenerate Cope rearrangements, display temperature-dependent shoulders (1b, 1d, 1e) or absorption maxima (1c, 2c, 2f) at the low-energy side of their strong UV bands. These long-wavelength absorptions are ascribed to Franck-Condon transitions from delocalized structures 1(deloc) and 2(deloc). Gibbs free energy differences, DeltaG*, between delocalized and localized forms were calculated from the temperature dependence of the long-wavelength absorptions. Dipolar and polarizable solvents strongly affect and even may reverse the relative stabilities of the localized and delocalized forms of 1c, 2c, and 2f. For example, DeltaG*(2c) = 8 kJ mol(-)(1) in cyclohexane, 2 kJ mol(-)(1) in dimethylformamide, and -3 kJ mol(-)(1) in N,N'-dimethylpropylene urea (DMPU), so that (2c(deloc))(DMPU) becomes the global minimum. In contrast to the case for 2c, the intensities of the long-wavelength shoulders of the yellow semibullvalenes 1b, 1d, and 1e are only moderately influenced by solvents, and the rates of Cope rearrangements of the nonthermochromic, colorless barbaralanes 2a and 2b, determined by NMR methods, are almost solvent-invariant. In search of the solute properties that are decisive in determining the influence of solvent upon DeltaG*, electrical dipole and quadrupole moments and molecular polarizabilities have been calculated using the B3LYP/6-31G* method and solvation energies have been computed with the conductorlike polarized continuum model (CPCM). The results of these calculations indicate that the solvent effects are due to the greater polarity and polarizability of the delocalized structures relative to the localized structures.

Fungal isolates of Penicillium cf. montanense were obtained from the marine sponge Xestospongia exiguacollected from the Bali Sea, Indonesia. Culture filtrates of the fungi yielded three novel decalactone metabolites, xestodecalactones A, B, and C (1, 2a, and 2b), consisting of 10-membered macrolides with a fused 1,3-dihydroxybenzene ring. Online HPLC-NMR, ESI-MS/MS, and -CD spectra were acquired, and the structures of the new compounds were established and confirmed on the basis of offline NMR spectroscopic ((1)H, (13)C, COSY, ROESY, (1)H-detected direct and long-range (13)C-(1)H correlations) and mass spectrometric (EIMS) data. Quantum chemical calculations of the CD spectra proved to be difficult because of the conformational flexibility of the xestodecalactones. These compounds, of which 2a and 2b, due to the additional stereocenter at C-9, are diastereomeric compounds, are structurally related to a number of biologically active metabolites found in terrestrial fungal strains. Compound 2a was found to be active against the yeast Candida albicans.