Oxidation-reduction ninhydrin

Finally, Droge and coworkers26 showed that the 2-aminoethyl phosphate-substituted KDO group is the lateral KDO unit of the branched trisaccharide (see Fig. 7), as follows. LPS from Salmonella minnesota mR3 was subjected to periodate oxidation. This sample, together with a control that had not been oxidized, was then mildly hydrolyzed with acid (pH = 3.4) during 1 h at 100°. Following removal of lipid A, both samples were analyzed by gel-filtration on Sephadex G-10, and paper electrophoresis. As expected, the ninhydrin-positive material obtained from the control sample was identical with KDO 7-(2-aminoethyl phosphate) (17) as previously identified. This spot was absent from the periodate-treated sample. Instead, an almost neutral, ninhydrin-positive spot was observed. This material (compound 26) was eluted, subjected to reduction with sodium [3H]borohydride, and hydrolyzed under strongly acidic conditions (see Scheme 11). Fol-... 

The reduction of 2, either catalytically or with zinc in acetic acid, leads to 3-amino-4-hydroxy-2-quinolone 20 [72TH000], These amino compounds are rather unstable they dimerize with loss of ammonia to "bis-amines", which in turn are readily oxidized to dyes similar to those obtained from ninhydrin and primary amines [68M1205] [68M1543], The amino derivatives 20 are therefore conveniently converted into 0,N-diacetyl derivatives, the N-acetyl derivative 21, or its dehydrated form, the oxazolo derivative 22 [95MI000], The variety of biological activity of oxazolo-quinolines of type 22 has been detected only in recent years [94JHC1647],... 

In the more general area of amino acid chemistry, 14 new unnatural amino acids have been synthesized and explored for biological activity. The crystal structure of L-Trp has been determined and substances such as ninhydrin and isatin have been shown to oxidatively deaminate and decarboxylate a-amino adds to yield aldehydes and isatogen reduction products. The decarboxylation (Strecker d radation) of a-amino adds has been studied with benzil and with benzoin. Both the amino and carboxylic add groups have been induced to... 

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