No abstract

[reaction: see text] Readily available ferrocenyldialkylphosphines are effective air-stable catalysts for Baylis-Hillman reaction between aldehydes and acrylates, affording the corresponding adducts in high yields and short reaction times. A set of readily accessible planar chiral ferrocenyldialkylphosphines have been tested in asymmetric Baylis-Hillman reactions. The best enantioselectivities were obtained using Mandyphos as chiral catalyst (up to 65% ee).

The chemical composition of the epicuticular wax from the fruits of Eucalyptus globulus was studied by GC-MS before and after alkaline hydrolysis. The wax had two main components, ursolic acid and tritriacontan-16,18-dione, together with several other triterpenic acids. After alkaline hydrolysis, a large increase in the amounts of triterpenic acids and fatty acids (particularly in hexadecanoic acid) was observed, suggesting that these components were present predominantly in esterified forms in the fruit wax. Six compounds were isolated from the fruits by preparative chromatography, and were identified as 8-desmethyleucalyptin, sesamin, tritriacontan-16,18-dione, ursolic acid, 3beta-hydroxyurs-11-en-13beta(28)-olide (ursolic acid lactone) and 3beta,11alpha-dihydroxyurs-12-en-28-oic acid, the latter of which was identified for the first time.

The chemical composition of the essential oil of the fruits collected from Eucalyptus globulus trees grown in Portugal has been studied; 33 components were identified, representing 94.5% of the oil, which comprises roughly equal amounts of monoterpenes (50.4%) and sesquiterpenes (49.6%). The major components identified were aromadendrene (25.1%), followed by α α α α α-phellandrene (17.2%), 1,8-cineole (11.7%), ledene (5.83%) and globulol (5.23%).