Rational design of CH/pi interaction sites in a basic resolving agent.

A novel synthetic basic resolving agent, cis-1-aminobenz[f]indan-2-ol (ABI), was rationally designed by introducing effective CH/pi interaction sites to cis-1-aminoindan-2-ol (AI), whose chiral recognition ability has been reported from our laboratory. ABI was applicable to a wide variety of racemic arylalkanoic acids and showed moderate to excellent chiral recognition ability, which was obviously higher than that of AI. The fundamental and important role of CH/pi interactions, such as tunable CH(sp(2))/pi and CH(sp(3))/pi interactions, in the chiral recognition by ABI was revealed by X-ray crystallographic study.

Isolation of peridinin-related norcarotenoids with cell growth-inhibitory activity from the cultured dinoflagellate of Symbiodinium sp., a symbiont of the Okinawan soft coral Clavularia viridis, and analysis of fatty acids of the dinoflagellate.

Two norcarotenoids, 1 and 2, related to peridinin (3) were isolated from the cultured dinoflagellate of the genus Symbiodinium, a symbiont of the Okinawan soft coral Clavularia viridis, which contains in abundance antitumor marine prostanoids such as clavulones. The structures of 1 and 2 were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analysis. These compounds showed significant growth-inhibitory activity in vitro toward cancer cells. Analysis of fatty acids of the dinoflagellate was also carried out, suggesting that the marine prostanoids are produced by the host soft coral itself.