UrFU Postgraduate Student from Egypt has Developed an Alternative Way of Transition from Carbohydrates to Valuable Heterocycles

13:00, June 26, 2019

Asmaa El-Tantawy presented the results of the study in the thesis, which she defended in Saratov on June, 19

Postgraduate student of the Department of Organic Chemistry and High-Molecular Compounds of UrFU Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Asmaa Ibrahim Abo El-Fotouh El-Tantawy has developed an alternative way of transition from carbohydrates to valuable heterocycles. The research was carried out under the supervision of the head of the department, Doctor of Chemistry, Professor Vyacheslav Sosnovskikh. The results of the four-year study are presented in the thesis, which Asmaa had recently defended at Saratov State University.

The thesis is devoted to the chemistry of triacetic acid lactone. Lactone has a simple structure, but it does not have a very high reactivity, which limits its use in organic synthesis. The main idea of the study is to modify the structure of the lactone into a more active form that would open up access to diverse heterocyclic structures.

Thus, this is the first work, which introduce acyclic derivatives of triacetic acid lactone, carbamoylated enaminones into practice of organic synthesis. Due to their polyfunctionality, these compounds turned out to be highly active building blocks for building various heterocyclic systems. Since triacetic acid lactone can be obtained from glucose, this study can be considered as an alternative way of transition from carbohydrates derived from biomass to valuable heterocyclic products.

The main results of the research are published in international journals: Journal of Organic Chemistry (American Chemical Society), New Journal of Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry) and Mendeleev Communications.

‘Asmaa and I worked together in the same lab for all four years. Of course, there were difficulties associated with the new research topic and adaptation to life in a foreign country, but she bravely overcame everything thanks to her perseverance, diligence, responsible attitude, hard work, and, of course, love for organic chemistry. Asmaa did a very serious job. In the beginning we only had an idea, and the outputs of the products were not impressive. However, thanks to a very careful and responsible approach to the search for optimal reaction conditions, some experiments were carried out 60 times, the idea developed into the full study and dissertation,‘ says Asmaa’s colleague, Dmitry Obydennov, an Associate Professor at the Department of Organic chemistry and macromolecular compounds. 

Asmaa El-Tantawy is now preparing to go back to her homeland and continue her scientific career in the Egyptian university, but she plans to visit Russia with her family in the future.

‘I became very attached to my laboratory and to my “scientific family”, which I was honored to belong to. I am very grateful and wish to thank Professor Sosnovskikh and Associate Professor Obydennov for guiding me and being a source of strength. They shared their wisdom and encouraged me for achieving the best results in my study,’ says Asmaa.

Reference

The research and preparation of the thesis were carried out with the support of the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 18-13-00186). The thesis “Synthesis of azaheterocycles based on triacetic acid lactone through the formation of carbamoylated enaminones” was defended on June 19. Members of the dissertation council unanimously voted to award the degree of Candidate of Chemical Sciences to Asmaa Ibrahim Abo El-Fotouh El-Tantawy.