Several benzoic, cinnamic and phenylacetic acid derivatives were screened with 20 micro-organisms, mainly fungi, for the reduction of their carboxylic function. For all organisms several compounds were reduced in fairly good yields up to 80% to the corresponding alcohol. No general rule could be established, concerning the substitution pattern, as to which compounds were transformed to the alco...

Flagellation of Salmonella typhimurium was found to require a functional pathway for ubiquinone synthesis as well as growth in the presence of aliphatic or aromatic carboxylic acids. Selection for constitutive flagellation eliminated the requirement for growth in the presence of added carboxylic acids.

A variety of hetero(aromatic) carboxylic acids are shown to undergo decarboxylative homocoupling, mediated by a Pd/Ag system. This novel methodology for the synthesis of symmetrical biaryls avoids the use of haloarenes and organometallic compounds as starting materials.

The role played by the additives salicylic acid, L-ascorbic acid and oxalic acid in promoting the catalytic activity of [MnIV2(O)3(tmtacn)2](PF6)2 (1(PF6)2, where tmtacn = N,N',N''-trimethyl-1,4,7-triazacyclononane) in the epoxidation and cis-dihydroxylation of alkenes with H2O2 and in suppressing the catalysed decomposition of H2O2 is examined. Whereas aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic acids e...

Nitroolefins are usually synthesized using the Henry reaction. Here we report an alternative metal-free decarboxylative nitration protocol for the preparation of the nitroolefins from α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids using t-butylnitrite (t-BuONO) and TEMPO. α,β-Unsaturated carboxylic acids bearing β-aromatic and β-heteroaromatic substituents gave (E)-nitroolefins exclusively under mild conditi...