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!
Tehshik Yoon and co-workers at the University of Wisconsin have reported in Organic Letters on a [2+2+2] cyclization approach to form endoperoxides using oxygen (ie: O2).
Xiao-Jiang Hao and co-workers from the Kunming Institute of Botany have reported in Tetrahedron Letters on the isolation of catharoseumine a peroxy containing alkaloid.
Khanitha Pudhom and co-workers have reported in the Journal of Natural Products on the isolation and activity of some endoperoxides from a Thai mangrove derived fungus.
Zhigang She and co-workers Sun-yat Sen University have reported in the Journal of Natural Products on the isolation of talaperoxides, norsesquiterpene peroxides.
Abimael Rodriguez and co-workers from the University of Puerto Rico have published in the Journal of Natural Products on the isolation of epiplakinidioic acid, which had an IC50 value of 0.3 micromolar against Plasmodium falciporum.
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