The use of photochemical transformations is a powerful strategy that allows for the formation of a high degree of molecular complexity from relatively simple building blocks in a single step. A central feature of all light-promoted transformations is the involvement of electronically excited states, generated upon absorption of photons. This produces transient reactive intermediates and significantly alters the reactivity of a chemical compound. The input of energy provided by light thus offers a means to produce strained and unique target compounds that cannot be assembled using thermal protocols. This review aims at highlighting photochemical transformations as a tool for rapidly accessing structurally and stereochemically diverse scaffolds. Synthetic designs based on photochemical transformations have the potential to afford complex polycyclic carbon skeletons with impressive efficiency, which are of high value in total synthesis.

Photochemical Approaches to Complex Chemotypes: Applications in Natural Product Synthesis

Although the chemistry of Pd(0), Pd(I) and Pd(II) is well established, high oxidation state Pd(IV) complexes are less well-known. This situation has highly changed in recent years. Many well-defined Pd(IV) complexes has been isolated and characterized, providing evidence for a series of proposed Pd(II)/Pd(IV) catalytic reactions. A deep understanding of the behavior of Pd(IV) complexes could lead to the design and development of novel reactions that could not be accessed by traditional Pd(0)/Pd(II) chemistry. This critical review describes the stoichiometric reactions of Pd(IV) complexes and discusses their potential mechanism in catalytic reactions (137 references).

Organopalladium(IV) chemistry

7. Bioactivity in plants: the link between phytochemistry and medicine

Sol-gel silica-based biomaterials and bone tissue regeneration.

Echinomycin, daunomycin, ethidium bromide, nogalamycin, chromomycin, mithramycin, and olivomycin inhibit RNA synthesis by RNA polymerase by interacting with the DNA template. Chromomycin and olivomycin form complexes with DNA, preferably in the helical form, but not with RNA. These complexes require guanine in DNA and the addition of a stoichiometric amount of bivalent cation. None of the other antibiotics requires the presence of any single base in the template for its action.

Base Specificity in the Interaction of Polynucleotides with Antibiotic Drugs

Chemistry of organosilicon compounds

La@C82 Anion. An Unusually Stable Metallofullerene

A stable diamagnetic monoanion of the La@C82 isomer was electrochemically prepared and isolated in order to disclose its cage symmetry. By measuring the 13C NMR spectrum of the anion, it was determined for the first time that the isomer has Cs symmetry, as was also confirmed by density functional calculations.

Yasuhiro Nakadaira

Papers

Chemistry of organosilicon compounds

La@C82 Anion. An Unusually Stable Metallofullerene

Structural Determination of the La@C82 Isomer

Structure of bilobalide, a rare tert-butyl containing sesquiterpenoid related to the C20-ginkgolides

Nuclear Overhauser effect, a unique method of defining the relative stereochemistry and conformation of taxane derivatives