Research
- Organic Synthesis
- Synthesis of C-nucleosides and glycopeptides with potential biological activities
- Synthesis of low molecular weight organogels and hydrogels and their applications
- Synthesis of room temprature ionic liquids and their applications
- Natural Product Chemistry
- Isolation secondary metabolites from plants and their biological activities
- Isolation secondary metabolites from plants found as bulk followed by derivatization to study Structure-Activity Relationship
The use of plant extracts to cure diseases can be traced back to the pre-historic period. With the development of modern science it has been found that only some compounds present in the extract are effective against particular illness. In view of this fact active compounds were isolated and their biological activities were determined. Further to increase the biological activity chemical modifications were carried in the molecule of effective principle from plant.
We are working on isolation of bulk secondary metabolites widely distributed and can be isolated in a reasonable amount from different plants of Pakistan followed by derivatisation and their biological activies. So, our work will provide a base for the cheaper source of medicinally important compounds.
Gels are soft materials containing a small amount of gelator and a large amount of solvent. If solvent is water gels are known as hydrogels while in case of organic solvents these termed as organogels. Gels have applications ranging from food and cosmetics to bioelectronics and energy storage devices. On the basis of chemical interactions these can be divided into two classes; covalently linked polymer gels and supramolecular gels.. Supramolecular gels are thermally reversible i.e on heating gel form is converted into solution which on subsequent cooling regain its gel form. It happens due to non covalent interactions like hydrogen bonding, ionic interactions etc. The supramolecular gels generally consist of low molecular weight components and therefore termed as low molecular weight gelators. Due to thermoreversibility, the low molecular weight supramolecular gels can be used in a number of applications.
It is quite clear that ionic liquids needed to be melted much lower than conventional salts like sodium chloride. They caught interest more and more soon as they meant to be made as Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids (RTIL). So, our first objective is to control temperature by variation in cation and/or anion.
