Organic Communications Articles

A convenient synthesis of six phenolic diarylpropanes has been formulated. A CuBr 2-catalyzed regioselective reaction was the key step for bromination of the arylpropanes. All the compounds showed good cytotoxicity to the human lung cancer A549 cell line. However, only one of these compounds induced apoptosis and a G1 cell cycle arrest by augmenting cellular ROS status. Introduction of bromo-substitution at the aryl groups increased the cytotoxicity significantly, but that was mainly due to necrosis.

A simple, novel and green method is reported for the synthesis of α-hydroxyphosphonates by hydro-phosphonylation of various structurally diversified aldehydes (aromatic/ heteroaromatic) using Nano-TiO 2 as catalyst under solvent free microwave condition. Environmentally benign reaction procedures, short reaction times, easy work-up, high product yields, and reusability of catalyst for several cycles with consistent activity makes this protocol a highly attentive one.