Chiral Aliphatic Hydroxy Compounds in Nature: a Review of Biological Functions and Practical Applications.

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Authors

MOZGA Tomáš PROKOP Zbyněk CHALOUPKOVÁ Radka DAMBORSKÝ Jiří

Year of publication 2009
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Collection of Czechoslovak chemical communications
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Field Biochemistry
Keywords Alcohols; Drugs; Pheromones; Odours; Chiral compounds; Hydroxy compounds; Chemical communication; Enantioselective enzymes; Natural products; Chiral pool.
Description Chirality is a phenomenon that pervades the life on the Earth and has a tremendous importance for our daily lives. Many pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, food additives, pheromones, fragrances and cosmetics are chiral. Chiral compounds play an essential role in biological systems, mainly for chemical communication among living organisms, serving as sex pheromones, aggregation pheromones, alarm pheromones, trail pheromones, attractants or repellent agents. This review summarizes our current knowledge of the biologically relevant chiral aliphatic hydroxy compounds, which are divided into eight classes according to their chemical structure: primary alcohols, secondary alcohols, tertiary alcohols, glycols and diols, hydroxy ketones, hydroxy carboxylic acids, hydroxy carboxylic esters and hydroxy amines. Information on biological functions and practical applications is summarized for each class. This information could be of interest to chemists, biochemists, biologists and pharmacists. A review with 475 references.
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