Sorbicillinoids are important hexaketide metabolites derived from fungi. They have a variety of biological activities including cytotoxic, antioxidant, antiviral and antimicrobial activity. The unique structural features of the sorbicillinoids make them attractive candidates for developing new pharmaceutical and agrochemical agents. About 90 sorbicillinoids have been reported in the past few decades. This mini-review aims to briefly summarize their occurrence, structures, and biological activities.

The photoluminescence of lanthanide ions inside fullerenes is usually very weak due to the quenching effect of the fullerene cage. In the case of Er@C 82 , the near-infrared emission from the Er 3+ ion is completely quenched by the C 82 fullerene cage. It remains challenging to turn on the photoluminescence of Er@C 82 and other monometallofullerenes. In this work, we adopt a covalent modification strategy to alter the electronic structure of the fullerene cage for sensitizing the near-infrared emission of Er 3+ ions in metallofullerenes Er@C 2n (2n = 72, 76, and 82). After covalent modification with trifluoromethyl, phenyl, or dichlorophenyl groups, the erbium metallofullerenes exhibit photoluminescence at 1.5 μm, which is the characteristic emission of the Er 3+ ion. Particularly, the otherwise nonfluorescent metallofullerene Er@C 82 is transformed into fluorescent derivatives by using this strategy. The photoluminescence from the Er 3+ ion is ascribed to energy transfer from the fullerene cage to the Er 3+ ion. According to theoretical calculations, the sensitization of the Er 3+ ion by the fullerene cage is associated with the large HOMO−LUMO gap and the closed-shell electronic structure of the metallofullerene derivatives. This work provides useful guidance for the design and synthesis of new fluorescent metallofullerenes.

The development of ionic liquids (ILs) with strong hydrogen-bond basicity is of great importance for the application of ILs in liquid–liquid extractions, but a long-standing problem is that the increase in hydrogen-bond basicity of ILs usually comes along with undesired changes in other properties such as reduced lipophilicity, raised melting point, and difficulty of forming biphasic systems with water. Herein, we provided a promising solution to this problem by synthesizing a class of functional phosphonium ILs with the use of biocompatible saturated/unsaturated long-chain fatty acids (carbon number up to 20) as anion precursors, and we also carried out systematic investigations on their physicochemical properties. These long-chain fatty acid ILs (LCFA-ILs) featured very strong hydrogen-bond basicity, up to the top level of all reported solvents, along with good lipophilicity and a wide liquid range. Moreover, the viscosity of LCFA-ILs exhibited only a slight increase with increasing chain length, and the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity could be tuned by a change in the side chain of the phosphonium cation. Excellent extraction efficiency was achieved by applying LCFA-ILs to both aqueous and nonaqueous extractions. The distribution coefficients of specific solutes reached unprecedented values up to 3000–5000, which were 17–650 times higher than those by common ILs and molecular solvents.

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been proposed as promising solvents for separating C 2 H 2 and C 2 H 4 , but screening an industrially attractive IL with high capacity from numerous available ILs remains challenging. In this work, a rapid screening method based on COSMO-RS was developed. We also present an efficient strategy to improve the C 2 H 2 capacity in ILs together with adequate C 2 H 2 /C 2 H 4 selectivity with the aid of COSMO-RS. The essence of this strategy is to increase molecular free volume of ILs and simultaneously enhance hydrogen-bond basicity of anions by introducing flexible and highly asymmetric structures, which is validated by a new class of tetraalkylphosphonium ILs featuring long-chain carboxylate anions. At 298.1 K and 1 bar, the solubility of C 2 H 2 in ILs reaches 0.476 mole per mole IL, very high for a physical absorption, with a selectivity of up to 21.4. The separation performance of tetraalkylphosphonium ILs to the mixture of C 2 H 2 /C 2 H 4 was also evaluated. Topical Heading and Key WordsTopical heading: Separations: Materials, Devices and Processes

Background & Aims Obesity promotes the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLDs), yet not all obese patients develop NAFLD. The underlying causes for this discrepancy remain elusive. LPGAT1 is an acyltransferase that catalyzes the remodeling of phosphatidylglycerol (PG), a mitochondrial phospholipid implicated in various metabolic diseases. Here, we investigated the role of LPGAT1 in regulating the onset of diet-induced obesity and its related hepatosteatosis because polymorphisms of the LPGAT1 gene promoter were strongly associated with susceptibility to obesity in Pima Indians. Methods Mice with whole-body knockout of LPGAT1 were generated to investigate the role of PG remodeling in NAFLD. Results LPGAT1 deficiency protected mice from diet-induced obesity, but led to hepatopathy, insulin resistance, and NAFLD as a consequence of oxidative stress, mitochondrial DNA depletion, and mitochondrial dysfunction. Conclusions This study identified an unexpected role of PG remodeling in obesity, linking mitochondrial dysfunction to NAFLD.