[alex_obrien]

Hello

I am an undergraduate student at the University of Bristol, UK - currently carrying out research in asymmetric methodology for my MSci thesis.

Can anyone suggest some good examples of commercially available compounds that are cheap in low (60-70%) ee, but incredibly expensive in high (>99%) ee?
I was thinking of terpenoids - but does anyone else have any good ideas? Natural products would be ideal.

Many thanks in advance,

Alex

[movies]

Yeah, I think that terpenoids are your best bet.  I think that pinene is available on the cheap at around 80% ee, but the 99% ee stuff is a lot more expensive.  Camphene and cedrene are other examples.  I think that in a lot of these cases the problem is more the chemical purity of the natural isolates more than the enantiopurity of the components.

Unfortunately, most vendors don't list the ee of the stuff they are selling.