This work constitutes a new strategy for teaching-learning the chemistry of natural products, being the students active participants in the process. Results showed in this activity contributed not only to the understanding of the subject but also turned out to be an important pillar of motivation. An essential oil is any of a class of volatile oils that give plants their characteristic odor. Essential oils are also known as ethereal oil, volatile oil, aetherolea, or simply as the oil of the plant from which they are extracted, such as oil of clove. The oil is “essential” in the sense that it contains the “essence of” vegetal specie fragrance, the characteristic fragrance of the plant from which it is derived. These can be extracted from different parts of plants such as stems, leaves and flowers. In this work, two conventional methods (steam distillation and Soxhlet extraction) and one non-conventional method (microwave-assisted extraction), was developed under different conditions from clove. The yield of clove oil and yield of eugenol were obtained; and the concentration of eugenol present was assessed by gas chromatography. The main objective was that the experimental activity with the theoretical foundation will provide to the students of organic chemistry the ability to link concepts and develop skills in the laboratory.

N-Tosyl-3-nitroindole reacts with moderate and strong nucleophilic dienes in a polar Diels-Alder reaction using protic ionic liquid (PIL) [HMIM][BF4] as reaction media. In the cases in which the diene has oxygenated substituents, the PIL favors the aromatization of the formal [4+2] cycloadducts. Although the presence of the PIL in the reactions of Ntosyl- 3-nitroindole as electrophile shows a clear tendency to the aromatization of the [4+2] cycloadducts, we observed that the neoteric solvent did not increase the yields in relation to a molecular solvent. Part of this work is specifically concerned with theoretical studies using DFT reactivity indices. The global and local electrophilicity and nucleophilicity indices were calculated for N-tosyl-3-nitroindole, and the dienes used in this study. For the studied reactions, the regioselectivity involved in the polar Diels-Alder reaction is well predicted.

In this work we studied a series of polar Diels-Alder reactions using different heterocycles derivatives acting as electrophiles joint to dienes of different nucleophilicity, analyzing the effect of the microwave irradiation in these processes. We employ the technique in two conditions: benzene as solvent and solvent free reactions. The last one presents the better yield in shorter time of reaction. Using microwave heating the aromatic cycloadducts are clearly predominant. It is possible to demonstrate that the microwave irradiation has a better influence on these cycloaddition reactions respect to those developed in thermal classical conditions.

A new fluorogenic and chromogenic probe (L) for the selective, sensitive and naked-eye detection of Cu2+ is reported. Complexation constant, complex stoichiometry and quantum chemical (DFT) calculation for Cu2+ complex has been determined. Also, detection limits and the selectivity in front of other divalent and trivalent cations have been evaluated.