Natural products molecular complexity

Site-selective molecular transformations can be performed in either a substrate-controlled or a catalyst-controlled manner, at least in principle. More arbitrary and diverse molecular transformation is expected, especially by such catalyst-controlled transformations. The molecular recognition process with its dynamic nature seems to be responsible for the performance of catalyst-controlled site-selective molecular transformation. Various examples of catalyst-controUed site-selective functionalization and its application to biological active natural products with complex structures are described. We know, however, that we are still at the preliminary stage in this emerging scientific field of site-selective catalysis. 1 believe that publication of this book can stimulate extensive development of methods for these future-oriented molecular transformations. 

Screening of proprietary libraries provides a unique opportunity for the identification of novel scaffolds. Such libraries contain either isolated natural products or complex samples based on fermentation broths. These libraries can be screened in biological assays to identify active molecules. Such compounds can then be evaluated as possible scaffolds for libraries. Today a wide variety of screening methods is available to identify bioactive molecules in low, medium, or high throughput. Such assays can be performed with isolated molecular targets or with whole cells. However, the compatibility of natural product-based libraries with screening assays may be an... 

As a final example we consider noncovalent molecular complex formation with the macrocyclic ligand a-cyclodextrin, a natural product consisting of six a-D-glucose units linked 1-4 to form a torus whose cavity is capable of including molecules the size of an aromatic ring. Table 4-3 gives some rate constants for this reaction, where L represents the cyclodextrin and S is the substrate ... 

This highly convergent synthesis amply demonstrates the utility of Evans s asymmetric aldol and alkylation methodology for the synthesis of polypropionate-derived natural products. By virtue of the molecular complexity and pronounced lability of cytovaricin, this synthesis ranks among the most outstanding synthetic achievements in the macrolide field. 

Allylic alcohols can be converted to epoxy-alcohols with tert-butylhydroperoxide on molecular sieves, or with peroxy acids. Epoxidation of allylic alcohols can also be done with high enantioselectivity. In the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation,allylic alcohols are converted to optically active epoxides in better than 90% ee, by treatment with r-BuOOH, titanium tetraisopropoxide and optically active diethyl tartrate. The Ti(OCHMe2)4 and diethyl tartrate can be present in catalytic amounts (15-lOmol %) if molecular sieves are present. Polymer-supported catalysts have also been reported. Since both (-t-) and ( —) diethyl tartrate are readily available, and the reaction is stereospecific, either enantiomer of the product can be prepared. The method has been successful for a wide range of primary allylic alcohols, where the double bond is mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrasubstituted. This procedure, in which an optically active catalyst is used to induce asymmetry, has proved to be one of the most important methods of asymmetric synthesis, and has been used to prepare a large number of optically active natural products and other compounds. The mechanism of the Sharpless epoxidation is believed to involve attack on the substrate by a compound formed from the titanium alkoxide and the diethyl tartrate to produce a complex that also contains the substrate and the r-BuOOH. ... 

The application areas for LC-MS, as will be illustrated later, are diverse, encompassing both qualitative and quantitative determinations of both high-and low-molecular-weight materials, including synthetic polymers, biopolymers, environmental pollutants, pharmaceutical compounds (drugs and their metabolites) and natural products. In essence, it is used for any compounds which are found in complex matrices for which HPLC is the separation method of choice and where the mass spectrometer provides the necessary selectivity and sensitivity to provide quantitative information and/or it provides structural information that cannot be obtained by using other detectors. 

The following is a procedure recommended for elucidating the structure of complex organic molecules. It uses a combination of different NMR and other spectroscopic techniques. It assumes that the molecular formula has been deduced from elemental analysis or high-resolution mass spectrometry. Computer-based automated or interactive versions of similar approaches have also been devised for structural elucidation of complex natural products, such as SESAMI (systematic elucidation of structures by using artificial machine intelligence), but there is no substitute for the hard work, experience, and intuition of the chemist. 

Cycloaddition reactions, which increase molecular complexity by formation of a cyclic compound and, simultaneously, two C-C or C-X bonds [1], are among the most widely used reactions in organic synthesis. The reactions are also regio- and stereoselective. For these reasons, such processes are usually the key step in the multistep synthesis of natural products. 

The natural products Mycoticin A (22, R = H) and B (22, R = Me) belong to the skipped-polyol-polyene class of antibiotics. Our analytical interest here is to use this very complex molecular structure to demonstrate some of the tools employed, mainly for the elucidation of the polyene part of the molecule. This family of polyene macrolide class was discovered in 195045 with the finding of Nystatin (23), which is produced by the Streptomyces bacteria. The exact structure was elucidated only in 1970 by Chong and Rickards46 and, in 1971, Nystatin Ai (23) and A2 (not shown in this review) were separated. 

The products of these [4 + 2 + 2]-reactions have a high level of molecular complexity, which has been used to advantage in exploring the conversion of the [4 + 2 + 2]-cycloadducts into commonly encountered ring systems. Zeise s dimer, for example, has been employed to carry out a skeletal rearrangement, as illustrated in Scheme 61, producing fused and bridged bicyclic systems found in several natural product families. 

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