Artemisinin, one of the topics of the Nobel Prizes in Medicine in 2015, and its derivatives have been used to treat malaria. A new study published in the Journal of Natural Products finds that the endoperoxide formation of artemisinin from dihydroartemisinic acid, its biosynthetic precursor, undergoes a mixed mechanism. The study, from the lab of Francis Yoshimoto at UTSA, used regioselectively deuterated dihydroartemisinic acid isotopologues to measure competitive intermolecular kinetic isotope effects in the formation of artemisinin. The supporting information file is over 500 pages!
When I think of organocatalysis, I usually think of a carbonyl compound forming an enamine intermediate, which in turn attacks an electrophile. The enamine is usually formed when the carbonyl compound reacts with a proline-derived catalyst. By using Gaussian and experimental KIE calculations, Matthew Vetticatt and co-workers at Binghamton University reported in JACS on the way that the enamine compound is formed: through an oxazolidinone intermediate.
Cristina de Meo and co-workers from Southern Illinois University reported in Organic Letters on a thiosialoside elimination of a thiophenol group, occuring by syn-elimination.
Lukas Goossen and co-workers at TU Kaiserslautern have reported in JACS on a mechanistic investigation of a ruthenium catalyzed hydroamidation reaction of an alkyne.
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