The insecticidal properties of the crude extracts of the leaves and flowers of Anemone pavonina were evaluated on Pheidole pallidula ants and showed significant levels of activity. Bioassay-guided fractionations led to the isolation of the butenolide ranunculin (1) as the active principle. Chemical investigations of the extracts showed them to contain as major components the sitosterol glycopyr...

The natural product paracaseolide A is a tetracyclic dilactone containing six adjacent stereocentres. Its skeleton occupies a unique structural space among the >200,000 characterized secondary metabolites. Six different research groups have reported a chemical synthesis of this compound, five of which used a thermal, net Diels-Alder [4+2] cycloaddition and dehydration at 110 °C to access the ta...

L-Carnitine is used extensively in functional foods and food supplements; consequently, the control of its enantiomeric purity is of paramount importance. A new derivatization procedure and chiral gas chromatographic method with flame ionization detection, using a cyclodextrin based stationary phase, enables prompt, simple, and inexpensive screening of the enantiomeric ratio of L- and D-carniti...