In this area, the research is mainly devoted to the total synthesis and semi-synthesis of biologically active natural substances.
Particular attention is paid to natural substances with phenolic structure and polyphenols, including flavonoids, lignans and neo-lignans, lignins, tannins and allomelanins. A qualified experience has been gained even in the chemistry of beta-lactam antibiotics (cephalosporins, penicillins and beta-lactams), peptide mimetics, nucleoside and nucleotide derivatives (including homo-nucleosides and thio-nucleosides), quinolones, imidazoles and other heterocycles in therapy. The synthetic procedures include the use of green chemistry techniques, alternative solvents (ionic liquids, fluorinated solvents and supercritical carbon dioxide), catalysis and biocatalysis, organometallic chemistry and photochemistry. Techniques of extraction, purification and structural characterization of natural substances in plant and animal extracts are applied, making use of preparative HPLC, UV-vis, FT-IR, mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses. These techniques are also applied for the enhancement of agro-industrial wastewater mainly in wine and olive oil extraction. Advanced nuclear magnetic resonance techniques (31P-NMR, 19F-NMR, mono- e multi-dimentional sequences) have been developed and patented for the characterization of natural polymers. The research group has the experience to assess "in vitro" and "in vivo" biological activity of new substances, including antioxidant activity and antiapoptotic activity, the cyto-genotoxicity and antiviral activity.
Particular attention is paid to natural substances with phenolic structure and polyphenols, including flavonoids, lignans and neo-lignans, lignins, tannins and allomelanins. A qualified experience has been gained even in the chemistry of beta-lactam antibiotics (cephalosporins, penicillins and beta-lactams), peptide mimetics, nucleoside and nucleotide derivatives (including homo-nucleosides and thio-nucleosides), quinolones, imidazoles and other heterocycles in therapy. The synthetic procedures include the use of green chemistry techniques, alternative solvents (ionic liquids, fluorinated solvents and supercritical carbon dioxide), catalysis and biocatalysis, organometallic chemistry and photochemistry. Techniques of extraction, purification and structural characterization of natural substances in plant and animal extracts are applied, making use of preparative HPLC, UV-vis, FT-IR, mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses. These techniques are also applied for the enhancement of agro-industrial wastewater mainly in wine and olive oil extraction. Advanced nuclear magnetic resonance techniques (31P-NMR, 19F-NMR, mono- e multi-dimentional sequences) have been developed and patented for the characterization of natural polymers. The research group has the experience to assess "in vitro" and "in vivo" biological activity of new substances, including antioxidant activity and antiapoptotic activity, the cyto-genotoxicity and antiviral activity.
