AREAS OF RESEARCH INTEREST

Dr. Douglas Armstrong, Olivet Nazarene University, Dept. of Chemistry, ONE University Ave., Bourbonnais, IL 60914.

Phone: (815) 939-5393. FAX: (815) 939-5071.

As an organic chemist, I am interested in the following GENERAL areas, which I am pursuing myself, and with the help and participation of undergraduate students:

1. Organic syntheses with one or more of the following objectives:
1. To make novel compounds, some of which may examine organic chemical theory (e.g., aromaticity).
2. To make compounds of possible medicinal interest, to be possible new drug candidates and/or help elucidate the mechanism of action of known drugs.
3. To elucidate the mechanisms of certain organic reactions.
4. To make compounds designed to sequester certain metal cations.
5. To discover new organic reactions.
2. Natural products chemistry (plant materials), with the objective(s) of discovering interesting, novel organic compounds, some of which may be submitted to pharmacologists for evaluation as potential medicinal agents.

The above general areas are being pursued by research in the following more SPECIFIC project areas:

1. Synthesis of Cyclopropyl Analogs of Certain Drugs.
2. Synthesis of Organofluorine Compounds.
3. Synthesis of Novel 5- and 6-Membered Nitrogen, Oxygen, and/or Sulfur Heterocyclic Compounds, Some of Which May Be Mesoionic.
4. Synthesis of Macrocycles Containing Oxygen Atoms ("Crown Ethers") and Others Containing Oxygen, Nitrogen and/or Sulfur.
5. Extraction and Pharmacological Evaluation of Certain Plant Materials from Kenya, Selected by a Very Knowledgeable, Native Kenyan, Who Knew Which Plants Have Been Used by Kenyans for Many Years for Various Medicinal Purposes. (Joint project with the University of Illinois at Chicago.)