Doctoral Themes - Proposals

Design, synthesis and characterization of bioactive-proposed wooden-camphor products (BIOCAMPHOR)

Supervisors

Tiago A. Fernandes, tiago.a.fernandes@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Maria Fernanda N N Carvalho, fcarvalho@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Registration Institution

Instituto Superior Técnico (Universidade de Lisboa)

Project description

This project proposes the synthesis, characterization of new organic compounds from bioavailable molecules reconfiguration and the study of their biological, antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties. Sources of natural bioactive building blocks will include the camphor skeleton, ellagitannins, phenolic aldehydes, phenilic acids, lactones, coumarins, etc..

The main goals of this project plan can be structured as: 1) design and synthesis of camphor derivatives by combination of two bioactive molecules derived from wood biopolymers decomposition (lignin, hemicelluloses and cellulose); 2) synthesis of coordination compounds with bioavailable or bioactive metals (copper, iron, zinc, other); 3) complete characterization of the obtained compounds; and 4) evaluation of their bioactivity.

Organic species derived from woods and its reuse are the key factor in this project. Complete characterization of new compounds will be done at IST by different techniques, namely elementary analysis, FTIR, NMR, LC-MS/MS and X-ray diffraction. The evaluation of antimicrobial activity will be carried out in collaboration with iBB (Instituto de Bioengenharia e Biociências) at IST.

Keywords

Camphor, Wooden derived compounds, Coordination chemistry, Bioactivity

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