• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.228-236
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• 1993

The effect of ferric ion on the reaction of CH_3$MgI with benzylbromide was investigated by determining the product ratio between cross-coupling product, ethylbenzene (A) and homocoupling product, bibenzyl (B) in the presence of ferric ion. When CH_3$MgI prepared with pure magnesium was used, the ratio of A to B was 22 to 78 and with reagent grade magnesium, the ratio became 33 to 67 indicating that metallic impurities in magnesium affect the reaction mechanism to lead less homocoupling product, B. The ratio changes became significant when ferric chloride was added in the reaction mixture in catalytic amounts and the ratio of A to B reached to 80 to 20 at maximum. The reaction in the presence of ferric ion seems to follow mainly an ionic mechanism which involves iron-benzyl bromide ${\pi}$-complex formation. The complex formation is expected to be able to enhance ionic attack of CH_3$MgI on benzyl carbon to give more A.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.286-291
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• 1996

Phenolic compounds are prevalent as toxins or environmental pollutants, but they are also widely used as drugs for various purpose including anticancer agent. A novel biphenolic compound, bis(2-hydroxy-3-tert-butyl-5-methylphenyl)methane (GERI-BPO02-A) was isolated from the fermentation broth of Aspergillus fumigatus F93 previously, and it has revealed cytotoxicity against human solid tumor cells. Its effective doses that cause 50% inhibition of cell growth in vitro against non-small cell lung cancer cell A549, ovarian cancer cell SK-OV-3, skin cancer cell SK-MEL-2 and central nerve system cancer cell XF498 were 8.24, 10.60, 8.83, $9.85\mug/ml$ respectively. GERI-BPO02-A has also revealed cytotoxicity against P-glycoproteinexpressed human colon cancer cell HCT15 and its multidrug-resistant subline HCT15/CL02, and its cytotoxicity was not affected by P-glycoprotein. We have also tested cytotoxicities of structurally related compounds of GERI-BPO02-A such as diphenylmethane, 1,1-bis(3,4dimethylphenyl)ethane, 2,2-diphenylpropane, 2-benzylpyridine, 3-benzylpyridine, $4,4^I-di-tert-butylphenyl$, bibenzyl, $2,2^I-dimethylbibenzyl$, cis-stilbene, trans-stilbene, 3-tert-butyl-4-hydroxy-5-methylphenyisulfide, sulfadiazine and sulfisomidine for studying of structure and activity relationship, and from these data we could suppose that hydroxyl group of GERI-BPO02A conducted important role in its cytotoxicity.