Research/Teaching Interests

• Organic chemistry
• Medicinal chemistry
• Epoxide rearrangements
• Chemistry of furan cycloadducts
• "Green chemistry"
• Laboratory curricular development
• Phytochemistry
• Temporary-tether Diels-Alder reactions
• NMR spectroscopy

External Grants

• Author and Co-Administrator Merck/American Association for the Advancement of Science Grant for Support of Interdisciplinary Research in Biology and Chemistry (2001-03), $60,000.
  
  
• Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences, (1998-99)
  "Moving Beyond Microscale – Integrating Environmentally Benign Organic Synthesis into the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum", $10,000

• Petroleum Research Fund - American Chemical Society, (1994-96)
  "Temporary Tether Diels-Alder Reactions Relying on Boron Based Weak Links", $25,000.

Selected Publications/Presentations

• Trentini, J. F. III, French, L. G., Erlichman, J. S., “The antinociceptive effect of Salvinorin A in mice” European Journal of Pharmacology 2006, 545, 129-133

• French, L. G. and * Jablonski, J., “Synthesis of Cyanoguanidines as Potential Vanilloid Receptor Ligands" ACS National Meeting, San Diego , March 2005.
  
  

• French, L. G. and * Jablonski, J., “Synthesis of Isobenzofurans and their Epoxide Rearrangements” ACS National Meeting, Anaheim , April 2004
  
  

• French, L.G., Tracey, A.J. and Ramirez-Sosa, C., "Isolation of a Novel Pacifigorgiane Sesquiterpene" ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, March 2003.
  
  
• Tracy , A J., French, L. G., and Ramirez-Sosa, C., “Sesquiterpene Constituents of Aristolochia salvadorensis" ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, March 2003.
  
  
• French, L. G. and Pinto, V., “Organometallic Reactions in Aqueous Media: Carbon-Carbon Bond Formation Utilizing an Organoindium Nucleophile” ACS National Meeting, Orlando , April 2002.
  
  
• French, L. G., “Isolation of (R)-(+)-Pulegone from the European Pennyroyal Mint, Mentha Pulegium”, The Chemical Educator, 2002, 7 , 270-277.
  
  
• French, L. G. and Pinto, V., "Organometallic Reations in Aqueous Media: Carbon-Carbon Bond Formation Utilizing an Organoindium Nucleophile" ACS National Meeting, Orlando, April 2002.
  
  

• French, L. G., Douglas, N. P. Ramirez-Sosa, C. Trentini, J. F, III, Monjaraz Arauz, M.M and Liu, D. Q. "Phytochemical Investigation of the Constituents of the Roots of Aristolochia salvadorensis" ACS National Meeting, Orlando, April 2002.
  
  

• French, L. G., Stradling, S.S., Parisian, K. R., DeBottis, D. P. and Dudley, M., "Introducing Environmentally Benign Synthesis into the Introductory Organic Lab - A Greener Friedel-Crafts Acylation", The Chemical Educator 2001, 6, 25-27.
• French, L. G., "Isolation, Purification and Structure Determination of (+)-Pulegone from the Essential Oil of Pennyroyal, Mentha pulegium" ACS National Meeting (Chemical Education Section), San Diego, April 2001.
• French, L.G., Parisian, K. R. and DeBottis,, D. P., "Introducing Environmentally Benign Synthesis into the Introductory Organic Lab: A Greener Friedel-Crafts-Acylation" ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, March 2000.

• French, L. G. and Parisian, K. R., "Friedel-Crafts Acylation and Alkylations on Solid Catalysts" ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, March 2000.

• French, L. G., "The Sassafras Tree and Designer Drugs - From Herbal Tea to Ecstasy," Journal of Chemical Education 1995, 72, 484.

• Shanmugananthan, K., French, L. G. and Jensen, B. L., "Chelation Controlled Allylation of Aldehydes with a Chiral Allylsilylene Derived from (-)-10-Phenylpinanediol," Tetrahedron Asymmetry 1994, 5, 797.

• French, L. G. and Charlton, T. P., "Rearrangement of Exo-1,4:2,3-Diepoxy-1,2,3,4-Tetrahydronaphthalene: Formation of a Novel Isochromene via Grob Fragmentation," Heterocycles 1993, 35, 305.

• French, L. G., "Teaching Organic Synthesis. An Advanced Organic Chemistry Course That Uses the Primary Literature," J. Chem. Ed. 1992, 69, 287.

• French, L. G., Fenlon, E.E. and Charlton T. P., "Rearrangement of Epoxidized Benzyne/Furan Cycloadducts: A Convenient Route to a -Formyl and a -Acyl-2-Indanones," Tet. Lett. 1991, 32, 851.

Recent Student Research Projects

• "Synthesis of a Library of Cyanoguanidines: Potential Vanilloid Receptor Ligands", Joseph Jablonski - senior research project 2004-05.

• "Phytochemical Investigations on a Local Cultivar of the Hallucinogenic Mint, Salvia divinorum", Jonathon DeLorbe - senior research project '03-'04.

• "Diels-Alder Reactions of Isobenzofurans and Rearrangement of their Cycloadducts and Epoxidized Cycloadducts", Joseph Jablonski - summer 2003 Merck/AAAS fellow.

• "Temporary-Tether Diels-Alder Reactions of Furan-2-boronic acid Derivatives", Steve Drake - senior research project '02-'03.

• "Analgesic Effects of Salvinorin A in Mice", John Trentini - senior research project '02-'03

• "Further Phytochemical Investigations on the El Salvadoran plant, Aristolochia salvadorensis, Identification of a Novel Sesquiterpene From the Rare Pacifigorgiane Class", Anthony Tracey - summer 2002 Merck/AAAS fellow.

• "Isolation and Identification of Aristolochic Acids from the Roots of Aristolochia salvadorensis", Neema Douglas - Merck/AAAS, Summer 2001.

• "Synthesis of Novel Indeno[2,1-c] Pyrazoles", Jennifer LaMay, Summer 2001.
• "Examination of the Essential Oil from the Roots of the El Salvadoran Plant, Aristolochia arboreus", Stacy Chiappinelli and Elissa Ladd - biology senior research project (Fall '00 - Spring '01)

• "Analysis of Aromatherapy Products by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry", Michelle Pease - senior research project (Fall '99 - Spring '00)

• "Green Chemical Oxidations for the Organic Chemistry Lab", Tara Kenny - senior reserearch project (Fall '99 - Spring '00)

• "Friedel-Crafts Acylation of Safrole and Estragole on Acidic Alumina", Keely Parisian (Dreyfus) (Summer '99)

• "The Substitutent Effects of Electron Donating and Electron Withdrawing Groups on the Regioselectivity of the Ring Contracting Rearrangement of Epoxidized Benzyne/Furan Cycloadducts. Synthesis of Some Substituted Indeno[2,1-c]Pyrazoles with Potential Biological Significance" Francis Musyoki – senior research project (Fall '98 - Spring '99)

• "Preparation of abstracts of primary chemical literature relevant to green chemistry", Virgilio Pinto – independent project (Fall '98)

• "Organometallic Reactions in Aqueous Media", Virgilio Pinto – experiment development for chemistry curriculum (Dreyfus)(Summer '98)

• "A Greener Friedel-Crafts Acylation", Dan DeBottis – experiment development for chemistry curriuculm (Dreyfus) (Summer '98)

• "Synthesis of Novel Heterocyclic Systems Containing the b -Phenethylamine Pharmacophore", Kristen Dasher – senior honors thesis, Festival of Science and Skidmore Undergraduate Research Symposium presentations. (Spring '97 – Spring '98)

• "Characterization of Basil Oils by GCMS", Jason Nolan – senior research (Fall '97 – Spring '98)

• "Isolation and Characterization of Pennyroyal Oils", Kevin Schnieder – senior research (Fall '97 – Spring '98)

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