Nopporn Thasana, Ph.D.

Green chemistry, Microwave-assisted organic synthesis and organometallic chemistry
Research in Dr. Thasana’s lab focuses on the synthesis of bioactive lactone and lactam molecules. His group studies the Cu(I)-mediated/MW-assisted C-O/N bond formation under “subcritical water” conditions as “Green Chemistry” to synthesize bioactive benzopyranone (urolithins A-C), novobiocin, and indolo-2-carboxamide analogs. Moreover chemistry of oxazolone and coumarin derivatives has been studied to develop efficient synthetic routes for a wide range of structurally complex natural products using metal catalysis or metal-free condition in key step. The natural bioactive alkaloids, lamellarin, clausenamide and naucleamide derivatives, will be synthesized using the developed synthetic methodology.

Natural products chemistry
A part from his interest in organic synthesis, he is also interested the screening and isolation of Lycopodium alkaloids having complex skeleton characteristics from Lycopodaceae/Huperziaceae plants. Huperzine A (HupA), firstly isolated from Huperzia serrata a traditional Chinese folk medicine, is a well known biological activity for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition. The investigation of phytochemical constituents of club mosses in Thailand has been studied. As well as dimer and hybrid of huperzine A have been synthesized to develop a more potent AChE inhibitor.