760-97-4

A process for manufacturing a substituted cyclohexanecarbonitrile said process comprising the following steps: - reacting the corresponding substituted cyclohexanecarboxylic acid with thionyl chloride to make the corresponding acyl chloride; and simultaneously or subsequently - reacting the chloride with sulfonamide in sulfolane as solvent to make the substituted cyclohexanecarbonitrile.

Methylated analogues of isopentenyl diphosphate were synthesised and enzymatically incorporated into methylated terpenes. A detailed stereochemical analysis of the obtained products is presented. The methylated terpene precursors were also used in conjunction with various isotopic labellings to gain insights into the mechanisms of their enzymatic formation.

Two novel β-diketones, 2,6,9-trimethyl-8-decene-3,5-dione (A) and 3,7,10-trimethyl-9-undecene-4,6-dione (B), were identified from the renowned medicinal plant Hypericum perforatum L. The structures of β-diketones A and B were corroborated by syntheses (4 steps starting from methyl acetoacetate, overall yields 30% and 23%, respectively). In solution, these β-diketones predominantly exist as two rapidly interconverting β-keto-enol tautomers. The structures of A and B show some common fragments with the molecules of hyperforin and adhyperforin, respectively, the acknowledged multi-target secondary metabolites from St. John's wort. It is therefore not surprising that A displayed a noteworthy biological activity profile as well (including brine shrimp toxicity, antinociceptive, antidepressant and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity). β-Diketone A manifested the most outstanding potency as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor with IC50 value of 1.51 μM pointing again to the β-keto-enol moiety as a promising lead structure for the development of drugs that could lessen symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (such as dementia, depression and pain).

The transformation of 12 bicyclooct-5-en-2-ols (V or VI) to 3-(cyclohex-3-enyl)-2-alkanones (III or IV), via β-cleavage of their potassium alkoxides in HMPA, has been investigated (cf. table I).As an illustration of this synthetic methodology, a stereoselective synthesis of (+)-trichodiene ((+)-1) is described wich involves the β-cleavage of the tricyclic potassium alkoxides 46a and 47a to cyclopentanone 4 (cf.Scheme 7).

(E)-3-Methyl-3-pentenyl diphosphate acted as an artifical homoallylic substrate in the reaction with several allylic diphosphates catalyzed by undecaprenyl diphosphate synthase of Bacillus subtilis.The synthase reaction with the artificial substrate proceeded in the same stereochemical manner as that with the natural homoallylic substrate, isopentenyl diphosphate, but it had a full stop at the stage where a single condensation of the C6-homologue with an allylic primer is completed to form a chiral prenyl diphosphate with an extra methyl group at the 4-position.Allylic diphosphates that each have an extra methyl group at the 4-position were not accepted as substrates for this enzyme even when isopentenyl diphosphate was the homoallylic substrate.

New cycloaliphatic unsaturated ketones and their use as perfuming and odour-modifying agents in the manufacture of perfumes and perfumed products, and as flavouring and taste-modifying agents in the preparation of foodstuffs in general and imitation flavours for foodstuffs, beverages, animal feeds, pharmaceutical preparations and tobacco products. Methods for the preparation of said cycloaliphatic unsaturated ketones.