Lignans are natural products composed of two β-β linked phenylpropanoid units. Lignans have acquired considerable importance owing to their broad range of biological activities. Indeed, many lignans have antitumor, antiviral, and insecticidal activities. Norway spruce lignans are of particular interest to researchers because they have been shown to play an important role in the prevention of breast, prostate, and colon cancers. The work within the thesis describes the synthetic approach to the development of enantiopure lignans or lignan like structures. The first chapter provides a through introduction about lignans biological activities and synthesis with the emphases on the lignans found in Norway spruce. The second chapter describes methods for extraction and analysis of these lignans using GCIMS analysis. Biological activities on bone cell differentiation were reported in chapter 3. Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 focus on the development of methodology towards the asymmetric synthesis of the lignans that found in the Norway spruce utilizing organocatalytic asymmetric aldol reaction. Enantiopure tetrahydrofuran and lactone rings synthesis utilising oxy-Michael and Michael addition was also described since these are the core structure of these lignans.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:553177 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Al-ani, Widad |
| Publisher | University of Reading |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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