Progress In The Chemistry Of Organic Natural Products 100

The volumes of this classic series, now referred to simply as "Zechmeister" after its founder, L. Zechmeister, have appeared under the Springer Imprint ever since the series' inauguration in 1938. It is therefore not really surprising to find out that the list of contributing authors, who were awarded a Nobel Prize, is quite long: Kurt Alder, Derek H.R. Barton, George Wells Beadle, Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin, Otto Diels, Hans von Euler-Chelpin, Paul Karrer, Luis Federico Leloir, Linus Pauling, Vladimir Prelog, with Walter Norman Haworth and Adolf F.J. Butenandt serving as members of the editorial board. The volumes contain contributions on various topics related to the origin, distribution, chemistry, synthesis, biochemistry, function or use of various classes of naturally occurring substances ranging from small molecules to biopolymers. Each contribution is written by a recognized authority in his field and provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the topic in question. Addressed to biologists, technologists and chemists alike, the series can be used by the expert as a source of information and literature citations and by the non-expert as a means of orientation in a rapidly developing discipline.

The first contribution describes apolar and polar molecular fossils and, in particular biomarkers, along the lines usually followed in organic chemistry textbooks, and points to their bioprecursors when available. Thus, the apolar compounds are divided in linear and branched alkanes followed by alicyclic compounds and aromatic and heterocyclic molecules, and, in particular, the geoporphyrins. The polar molecular fossils contain as functional groups or constituent units ethers, alcohols, phenols, carbonyl groups, flavonoids, quinones, and acids, or are polymers like kerogen, amber, melanin, proteins, or nucleic acids. The final sections discuss the methodology used and the fundamental processes encountered by the biomolecules described, including diagenesis, catagenesis, and metagenesis. The second contribution covers the distribution of phthalides in nature and the findings in the structural diversity, chemical reactivity, biotransformations, syntheses, and bioactivity of natural and semisynthetic phthalides.

The objective of this ASI was to bring together specialists in several complex variables (many of whom have contributed to complex potential theory) and specialists in potential theory (all of whom have contributed to several complex variables) together with young researchers and graduate students for an interchange of ideas and techniques. Not only was the status of current research presented, but also the relevant background, much of which is not yet available in books. The following topics and interconnections among them were discussed: 1. Real and Complex Potential Theory. Capacity and approximation, basic prop erties of plurisubharmonic functions and methods to manipulate their singularities and study their growth, Green functions, Chebyshev-type quadratures, electrostatic fields and potentials, propagation of smallness. 2. Complex Dynamics. Review of complex dynamics in one variable, Julia sets, Fatou sets, background in several variables, Henon maps, ergodicity, use of potential theory and multifunctions. 3. Banach Algebras and Infinite Dimensional Holomorphy. Analytic multi functions, spectral theory, analytic functions on a Banach space, semigroups of holomor phic isometries, Pick interpolation on uniform algebras and Von Neumann inequalities for operators on a Hilbert space. The basic notion of complex potential theory is that of a plurisubharmonic function.

The first contribution reviews the phytochemical, chemical, and biological literature on members of the ingenane class of diterpenoids from their first isolation in 1968 through 2015, highlighting unresolved issues both common to phorboids and specific to ingenol derivatives. The biogenesis of ingenol is discussed in the light of the Jakupovic proposal of a dissection between the formation of the macrocyclic Euphorbia diterpenoids and the phorboids, and the clinical development of ingenol mebutate is chronicled in the light of its “reverse-pharmacology” focus. The second contribution offers a comprehensive view of the chemical wealth and the taxonomic problems currently impeding chemical and biological investigations of the genus Laurencia. It addresses the botanical description and the growth and population dynamics of the genus, as well as its chemical diversity and ecological relations; the secondary metabolites as well as their sources of isolation; and finally the biological activity.