Chemistry Cost-Effective Synthesis of Functionalized Piperazines as Potential Anti-Fungal Agents § Fredrick Ackon Arhin* Project Mentor(s) : Timothy K. Beng, PhD Fungal infections are no longer a manageable issue; they have transformed into a dire threat to human and agricultural health. Traditional antifungal therapies fail to provide safe or durable solutions, as they are frequently hampered by high cytotoxicity and the rapid evolution of resistant strains. This lack of effective medicine has created a critical gap in our defensive arsenal. Meanwhile, the practical synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles (azaheterocycles) is of interest to synthetic and medicinal organic chemists due to their high prevalence in FDA-approved drugs. One of these azaheterocycles is the piperazine ring. Herein, we describe efforts toward a step-economical and cost-saving approach to highly functionalized piperazines bearing two adjacent stereocenters. The proposed structures have been assembled through a cyclic process involving an imine (compound bearing a C‒N double bond) and a commercially available cyclic anhydride (referred to as MIDA anhydride). Through collaborative efforts, the produced piperazines will be engaged in structure-activity-relationship (SAR) studies in hopes of finding a cost-effective therapeutic for the treatment of fungal infections in plants. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation (May 21, 9:30am–3:00pm) Keywords : Antifungal therapies, cytotoxicity, azaheterocycles, piperazines, structure-activity- relationship SOURCE Form ID: 112 Progress Toward Synthesis of Thiol-containing Cyclic Amino Alcohols for the Sweetening of Petroleum Products Alan Gitonga, Katharyn Curry Project Mentor(s): Timothy K. Beng, PhD Crude petroleum products contain nitrogen and sulfur-containing compounds, which greatly affect their chemical properties and performance negatively. As a result, most petroleum refineries focus on eliminating these compounds and carbon dioxide. In this study, the synthesis of stable thiol-bearing cyclic amino alcohols (organic compounds containing both a thiol (-SH) and an amino (-NH 2 ) group within a ring structure) was examined using readily available starting materials. The final compounds will eventually be used to eliminate simple thiols and CO 2 present in crude petroleum products, thus contributing to the sweetening (cleaning) process. We anticipate that these novel compounds will remove the CO 2 by converting it to bicarbonate through base-catalysed CO 2 hydration, while also eliminating thiols by converting them to stable disulfide (compounds containing two bonded sulfur atoms) through a carefully designed reaction.
Presentation Type: Poster Presentation (May 21, 9:30am–3:00pm) Keywords: thiol-bearing amino alcohols, sweetening, crude oil SOURCE Form ID: 150
109
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator