ABSTRACT
Both oxidation and oxygenation are very important in the metabolism of biologically active substrates, such as thiamin, lipoic acid, many sulfur-containing amino acids and proteins, as well as drugs and other xenophobic substrates. Although the number of valence electrons may change as the result of addition, substitution, reduction, ligand coupling, or oxidation, this chapter focuses on the oxidation of thiols and disulfides. The electrophilic oxidation of the sulfide with dinitrogen tetroxide, which proceeds by some steps, results in a mixture of sulfoxides in which the trans-cis ratio was 80:20. Electrophilic oxidation can be subdivided into simple electrophilic oxidation and one electron transfer oxidation. The chapter also discusses air oxidation of thiols in the presence of a strong base was shown to result in the formation of disulfides. Alkaline autooxidation of thiols and disulfides, the reaction of thiolsulfinates with Potassium periodate, and the reaction between disulfides and amine oxides are nucleophilic oxidations.
