Discovery of drugs against viruses is always an attractive area of research. Plants are important natural source for discovery of drugs against viruses. Here in this article we targeted at two points. First the selection of a particular plant against viruses can be done more rationally by using the latest computer techniques i.e. docking studies of the known phytochemicals on various viral protein targets. Second with help of literature search and docking studies we identified some important natural compounds that can be used as natural leads. For this, we selected important phytoconstituents from 20 plants for docking studies using Maestro (Glide) and Lead IT (FlexX). Later those phytochemicals which got good docking scores were further docked in Autodock 4.2 in order to find out the estimated inhibition constant. Flavonoids, curcumin and other compounds gave good docking scores and better inhibition constant. These compounds can be used as natural leads and analogues and derivatives can be synthesized to get effective antiviral agents. In addition this approach gives a way to avoid random selection of plant for a particular activity, in order to save time, chemicals and effort of the medicinal chemist.

Some natural amino acids can be the precursors for unnatural amino acids by suitable synthetic transformations. Modification in the side chain is the basis for the synthesis of new amino acids, allowing functional interaction between the new modified amino acids and other compounds, by altering their chemical and photophysical properties, to have a wide variety of applications. Heteroaromatic systems containing in its structure potential chelating groups have the ability to act both in the recognition of ions and in the signaling of the recognition event because, when complexed, variation of their fluorescent properties may occur. Benzimidazole and its derivatives have been studied in ion recognition systems that display color changes or fluorescence quenching or enhancement upon binding. Furan and thiophene are also known for their very interesting photophysical properties, which enable their application as sensors and/or fluorescent markers. Therefore, new amino acids containing these associated units could be potential fluorimetric sensors for ions with improved photophysical properties. We now report the synthesis and photophysical characterization of novel benzimidazol-5-yl-L-alanines, by formation of an imidazole ring fused to the phenyl ring at the side chain of phenylalanine, to give a benzimidazole, with different five membered heterocycles as substituents. An interaction study with biologically important ions was carried out through spectrofluorimetric titrations.Acknowledgements: Thanks are due to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT-Portugal) and FEDER-COMPETE for financial support through Centro de Química [PEst-C/QUI/UI0686/2013 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-037302] and a PhD grant to C.I.C. Esteves (SFRH/BD/68360/2010). The NMR spectrometer Bruker Avance III 400 is part of the National NMR Network and was purchased with funds from FCT and FEDER.

We report here the formation of dimeric palladium(II) and zinc(II) complexes of a ligand (H2L) derived from the condensation of 2 tosylaminomethylaniline and 2,3-dihydroxybenzaldehyde.The structures in solution of the corresponding palladium(II) and zinc(II) complexes could be deduced from NMR studies. With the aim of establishing an energy-structure relationship between the two possible linkage isomers (μ-O bridged and μ-N bridged), some theoretical energy calculations have been performed.

In this work, nanohollow Zn-Fe2O4 spheres were prepared from ZnCl2, FeCl3.6H2O and ammonium acetate using the hydrothermal method. Then, Zn-Fe2O4@ZnO core-shell structured spheres were synthesized by using immobilization of ZnO nanoparticles on surface of Zn-ferrite spheres via sol-gel rout. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that the Zn-Fe2O4 and Zn-Fe2O4@ZnO core-shell structured spheres are made of the spherical shape particles. Results of vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) reveal that the Zn-Fe2O4 nanoparticles are superparamagnetic, whereas in the form of Zn-Fe2O4@ZnO core-shell structured spheres are not. Photocatalytic activity studies confirmed that as-prepared Zn-Fe2O4@ZnO core-shell structured spheres had excellent photodegrading behavior to methylene blue (MB) compared to pure ZnO nanoparticles. Also Zn-Fe2O4@ZnO core-shell structured spheres due to the magnetic properties of environment can be easily removed. Furthermore, Zn-Fe2O4@ZnO core-shell structured spheres could be also served as convenient recyclable photocatalysts because of their magnetic properties.

Dispersibility and stability of chemical functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (f MWCNTs) in aqueous solution by using small amount of a cationic ionic liquid (IL), 1- tetradecyl-3-methylimidazolium Chloride, [C14mim]Cl, was investigated and was compared with unfunctionalized MWNTs. The surface modification of MWCNTs was done by acid treatment. The f-MWCNTs are extensively characterized by using FT-IR spectroscopy. Using UV-vis spectroscopy was proved that the presence of functional group on the side wall of MWCNTs significantly affected their dispersibility in an aqueous solution which contains a small amount of imidazolium based IL as dispersing agent.

Porphyrins as a supermolecular compound and primary chromophores in photosynthesis, are nature's light harvesting system. Porphyrins capture a broad range of the solar spectrum due to their strong absorption band in both visible and near infrared regions. In the synthesis of bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) with monoclinic-tetragonal phases, NH4VO3 and Bi (NO3) 3.5H2O equimolar aqueous solution was mixed. PEG was added to the solution including Bi (NO3) 3.5H2O. The mixture was stirred for 1h and sonicated by ultrasonic for 30 min at room temperature. The yellow precipitate of BiVO4 was separated from the solution by centrifuging and was washed with distilled water and ethanol. The final production was dried in an oven at 60˚C. The resultant sample were calcined at 450˚C for 2h. Tetrakis (4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP) was prepared by reflaxing 4-Carboxybenzaldehyde and pyrrole in propionic acid.  The prepared sample was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Photocatalytic activities of the BiVO4 sample were evaluated by the methyl orange decomposition under visible and UV light irradiation. The degradation was observed by the decrease in the absorbance peak studied by UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The results show that the behavior of photoinduced charges markedly depends on the crystalline phases of BiVO4 sample. The presence of interface in monoclinic-tetragonal heterophase provides a spatial condition for charge transfer, promotes the separation of photoinduced electron-hole pairs, and changes in the migration direction of photoinduced carriers. The results were shown under the irradiation of  UV light (λ > 400 nm),  25% of the methyl orange dye was destructed in the presence of the BiVO4 sample after 240 min, which is much higher than the irradiation of visible light.

Boronic acid and their esters are highly valuable compounds which have found extensive applications in organic and medicinal chemistry. Tartaric acid derived boronic ester have been used in asymmetric reductions of ketones with very good to excellent enantiomeric excess. For that reason we are interested in the synthesis of new boronic ester tartrate derivatives, in particular, in those which derive from diboronic acids. Our aim is to compare the results between mono and diboronic ester tartrate derivates. The synthesis of boronic esters from boronic acids and alcohols is an equilibrium which can be driven to the boronate product removing the water produced in the reaction by distillation with a Dean-Stark apparatus or by using dehydrating agents like CaH₂, MgSO₄ or molecular sieves. In this work, the boronic esters were synthesized by heating the reactants with a Dean-Stark apparatus or by the addition of CaH₂ or molecular sieves as dehydrating agents. The solvents of choice were toluene and THF. We present here the synthesis of some boronic esters derived from phenyl boronic acid, 9-anthracene boronic acid, 1,4-phenyldiboronic acid, 1,4-naphtalene diboronic acid and 9,10-anthracene diboronic acid using tartaric acid, dimethyl tartrate and dibenzyl tartrate as diols. NMR spectroscopic data of ¹H, ¹³C and ¹¹B are informed.

The crystal of N-(4-Choloromobenzoyl)-anthranilic acid has been synthesized and characterized by X-Ray, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and IR techniques. Its molecular geometry was also optimized using HF and DFT/B3LYP theories with the 6−31G(d) and 6−31G+(d,p) basis sets and compared with the experimental data. The calculated results show that the optimized geometry can well reproduce the crystal structure, and the theoretical vibrational frequencies and chemical shift values show good agreement with experimental values.

In recently years one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures (wires, rods, tubes) have received much attention because two-dimensional quantum confinement effect and their potential application in optoelectronics devices, such as photovoltaic solar cells or light emitting diodes. In this context one of the most important is zinc sulfide (ZnS) nanocrystal materials. ZnS is a large band gap II-VI group compound, which has two structural polymorphs—cubic zinc blende (3.72 eV) or hexagonal wurtzite (3.77 eV). Typically one-dimensional structures are characterized by wurtzite structure. ZnS has been targeted as an efficient semiconductor host to dope different transition metal ions such as Mn or Cu. ZnS:Mn is a luminescent material well known for its photoluminescence, electroluminescence and cathodoluminescence. In this article we present the microwave solvothermal synthesis of 1D nanocrystalline and the surface modification of  ZnS:Mn particles for polymer application. The preparation of 1D ZnS nanostructures generally requires high temperature, pressures and long time of synthesis. The effect of different parameters such as time, temperature, solvents, molar ratio of zinc and thiourea on the phase(s) formation of ZnS nanocrystals was investigated. The obtained ZnS nanoparticles materials were characterized by the X-ray diffraction, optical absorption measurements, SEM and photoluminescence studies.

Arylhydrazines 1 react with 2-methylcyclohexanone 2 via Fischer indole synthesis to 4a-methyl-2,3,3,4a-tetrahydro-1H-carbazoles 3, which cyclize with 2-substituted malonates 5 to give 5-aryl- and 5-alkylsubstituted 4-hydroxy-11b-methyl-1,2,3,11b-tetrahydro-6H-pyrido[3,2,1-jk]carbazol-6-ones 6. Pyridocarbazoles 6 can be shown to give a series of reactions, such as electrophilic halogenation to 5-chloro-pyridocarbazole-4,6-dione 9, and nucleophilic halogenation to 4-chloro-pyridocarbazol-6-one 11. 4-Azido-5-phenylpyridocarbazol-6-one 13 cyclizes under thermolysis to the indolo derivative 14. This reaction was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).