for some organic reactions in water, which contributes to the understanding of the chemistry in some natural environments (soils, seawater, atmospheric aerosols, …) and biological systems, and is also potentially interesting for green chemistry as many of their salts are cheap and non-toxic. In this work, the effect of NH4+ ions on the hydrolysis of small epoxides in water was studied kinetically. The
Abstract The isolation of a newlactone, 2-methyl-2,3,4-trihydroxybutanoic acid-1,4-lactone, from leaves of water-stressedchickpea is described. Elucidation of the structure was by chemical and spectroscopic methods. The lactone could not be detected in the leaves of well-watered plants. Its occurrence in other species is confirmed.