Most drugs used today are purely organic compounds. Especially after the enormous success of the cisplatin (Fig 1) in tumor treatment, interest in metal complexes has grown (Allardyce & Dyson, 2006). Synthetic organometallic compounds are generally considered to be toxic or non-compatible with biological systems. Despite this perception, the medicinal properties of organometallic compounds, in ...

The covalent modifications of sulfhydryl groups (-SH) may occur through oxidation to mixed disulfides (S-thiolation), S-nitrosylation, as well as persulfide and trisulfide formation. The latter possibilities of -SH group modification connected with compounds containing sulfur called sulfane sulfur are described in this paper. Sulfane sulfur compounds contain a labile, highly reactive sulfur ato...

It is a pleasure to be able to introduce this second Thematic Series on ‘organo-fluorine chemistry’ within the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. The series now embeds the subject firmly as a special interest area of the journal. The first series in 2008 presented contributions representing a wide range of organic fluorine chemistry [1-10] and this series continues that trend exploring the...

The organo-boron species formed from the reactions of boron atoms with acetylene in solid neon are investigated using matrix isolation infrared spectroscopy with isotopic substitutions as well as quantum chemical calculations. Besides the previously reported single C-H bond activation species, a cyclic-HBC2BH diboron species is formed via double C-H bond activation of acetylene. It is character...

It is a great pleasure to be able to introduce this Themed series on organo-fluorine chemistry in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. The introduction of fluorine into organic molecules is widely practiced particularly when tuning the properties of molecules for specialist functions. Of particular prominence is the role fluorine substitution finds in pharmaceutical development [1], and ...

Sulfur is an essential element for the entire biological kingdom because of its incorporation into amino acids, proteins and other biomolecules. Sulfur atoms are also important in the iron-containing flavoenzymes. Unlike humans, plants can use inorganic sulfur to synthesize sulfur-containing amino acids. Therefore, plants are an important source of sulfur for humans. Sulfur-containing compounds...