Converting avocado seeds into a ready to eat snack and analysing for persin and amygdalin.

Avocado seeds account for 13% of the waste from industrial production of cold-pressed avocado oil (CPAO). Therefore, the aim of this study was to valorise avocado seeds by converting it into an extruded snack product using a friction cooker and comparing their textural and physical characteristics to extruded brown rice and malted barley ready to eat (RTE) snacks. Concentration of toxins; amygdalin and persin were compared in extruded avocado seed and fresh avocado seeds. Avocado seed extrudates were significantly lower in lateral expansion, apparent density, porosity, hardness, and crispiness compared to brown rice extrudates. Antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content (TPC) was highest in freeze-dried avocado seeds. Antioxidant capacity and TPC of avocado seed extrudates were significantly higher than brown rice and malted barley. The concentrations of both amygdalin and persin in the RTE avocado seed snack were present at non-toxic levels (2.6 × 10-6 mg/g and 0.68 mg/g respectively).

Concise synthesis of (+)-allo-kainic acid via MgI2-mediated tandem aziridine ring opening-formal [3 + 2] cycloaddition.

3-Methyl vinyl aziridine undergoes a mild MgI2-promoted S(N)2' ring opening and concomitant cyclization with fumarate Michael acceptors to give trisubstituted pyrrolidines. The process is efficient and highly diastereoselective. This methodology has been applied to a concise asymmetric synthesis of (+)-allo-kainic acid.

Cyclohydrocarbonylation-based strategy toward poly-substituted piperidines.

Convenient accesses to enantiomerically pure 2-, 2,3-, 2,6-, 2,3,6-substituted piperidines and 1,4-substituted indolizine are described. At first, indium-mediated aminoallylation and -crotylation of aldehydes with (R)-phenylglycinol or (1R,2S)-1-amino-2-indanol gave homoallylamines with high stereocontrol. Then, these products, submitted to a Rh(I)-catalyzed hydroformylative cyclohydrocarbonylation, afforded perhydrooxazolo[3,2-a]piridines whose oxazolidines are opened with nucleophiles. Finally, the removal of the chiral auxiliaries delivered the enantiomerically pure piperidines.