| Staff |
Short CVProf. Jan van der Westhuizen received his Ph. D. in 1980 from the UFS on the use of Photochemistry in Flavanoid Synthesis. During his studies he was awarded the Shell Research Fellowship, the Konrad Taeuber postgraduate Science Memorial Scholarship, a CSIR Merit Award and the Nedbank medal for Academic Excellence. He did postdoctoral research on the use of Diels Alder reaction in the synthesis of beta-lactams at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. He also obtained an MBA from the Potchefstroom University.
In 1983 he became self employed as a farmer and entrepeneur. During this period he served in various leadership positions in organized agriculture including national chairperson of the South African Meat Producers Organisation as as a director of teh South African Meat Industry Company (SAMIC). In 2000 he visited the United Kingdom to investigate BSE (mad cow disease) and evaluate the British Date Based Export Scheme. He has a cattle farm near Bray in the Kalahari.
In 2000 he joined the Bio-prospecting program of the CSIR where he was also involved with the establishment of Biosys Plant Extracts Pty Ltd., an essential oil producing and trading company from CSIR technology and teh establishment of essential oil production facilities on farms.
Professor van der Westhuizen joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of the Free State in 2004.
In 2008, a THRIP project, in collaboration with FARMOVS-PAREXEL, undertaking the synthesis of isotope labelled internal standards and metabolites in the support of novel bio-analytical clinical trials for the registration of new medicines (locally and internationally), resulted in the prestigious NSTF award for outstanding contribution to Science, Engineering and Technology: Category D award: ‘Innovation developed through a corporate organisation or institution'.
This project also resulted in capacity building in this groundbreaking field of research: 5 Masters Degrees were completed, 7 are in progress and 6 postgraduate students commenced with Ph.D’s. Area of Expertise
- Synthetic Organic Chemistry
- Organic Structure Elucidation
- Organic Chromatography
- Photochemistry
- Natural Product Chemistry
Current Research Interests
- Synthesis of flavonoid oligomers
- Synthetic photochemistry
- Synthesis of internal standards (2H and 13C labelled)
- Bio-analytical chemistry: quantification of drugs in body fluid samples
- Activity guided identification, isolation structure elucidation and synthesis of bioactive natural products
Courses Presented
- Prof. van der Westhuizen lectures on all facets of organic chemistry, including photochemistry, radical chemistry, spectroscopy and synthetic organic chemistry on under- and post-graduate levels.
- He is study leader for 7 Masters and 9 Ph.D students.
Publications (Short List)Publications in international peer reviewed journals:
1. Achilonu, M.C., Bonnet, S.L.and van der Westhuizen, J.H.; Synthesis of Proanthocyanidins. Part 1. The First Oxidative Formation of the Interflavanyl Bond in Procyanidins, Organic Letters (Published on Web 08/05/2008) 10.1021/ol801353u © American Chemical Society.
2. Osthoff, G., Dickens, L., Urashima, T., Bonnet, S.L., Uemura, Y. and van der Westhuizen, J.H., Structural characterization of oligosaccharides in the milk of an African elephant (Loxodonta africana africana), Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B 150 (2008), 74-84
3. Theron, H.B.; Van Der Merwe M.J.; Swart K.J.; Van Der Westhuizen J.H.: Atmospheric Pressure Photoionisation in LCMS to Minimize Ion Suppression and Matrix Effects - Quantification of Venlaxafine & O-Desmethylvenlaxafine. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., (2007), 21, 1680-6.
4. Ze Han, Susan L. Bonnet and Jan H. van der Westhuizen: Photochemistry synthesis. Part 1: Syntheses of xanthine derivatives by photolysis of 1-(5′-oxohexyl)-3,7-dimethyl-3,7-dihydro-1H-purine-2,6-dione (pentoxifylline): an ambident chromophore. Tetrahedron. (2008), 64, 2619-2625.
5. J.H. van der Westhuizen, J.A. Steenkamp and D. Ferreira: An unusual reaction of flavan-3-ols with acetone of relevance to the formation of the tetracyclic ring system in peltogynoids. Tetrahedron, (1990), 23, 7849-7854.
6. R.P. Attrill, A.G.M. Barrett, P. Quayle and J.H. van der Westhuizen; Convenient Synthesis of -(2-Oxoazetidin-4-yl) Esters and Ketones and Related Systems., J. Org. Chem., (1984), 49, 1679-1682.
7. J.H. van der Westhuizen, D. Ferreira and D.G. Roux.: Synthesis of Condensed Tannins. Part 2. Synthesis by Photolytic Rearrangement, Stereochemistry, and Circular Dichroism of the First 2,3-cis-3,4-cis-4-Arylflavan-3-ols. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin 1, (1981), 1220-1226
8. J.H. van der Westhuizen, D. Ferreira and D.G. Roux.: A Novel Photochemical Structural Inversion: The First Methoxy-Hydroxymethyl Isomerization. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin 1, (1980), 1540-1543.
9. J.H. van der Westhuizen, D. Ferreira and D.G. Roux.: Photochemical Deoxygenation of an alpha-Ketol: The Dihydroflavonol-Flavanone Conversion. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin 1, (1980), 1003-1006.
10. J.H. van der Westhuizen, D. Ferreira and D.G. Roux. Some Novel Photochemical and Related Aryl Couplings and Migrations in Flavonoid Synthesis. J. Chem., Soc., Perkin 1, (1980), 2856-2865.
11. J.H. van der Westhuizen, D. Ferreira and D.G. Roux. Photochemical Equivalent of a Benzilic Acid Rearrangement and Related Conversions. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin 1, (1977), 1517-1522
Posters Presented at International Conferences:
- A. Wilhelm, S.L Bonnet & J.H. van der Westhuizen: PHOTOCHEMISTRY OF (+)-CATECHIN AND (-) EPICATECHIN at the Internatioanl Conference in Organic Synthesis (IUPAC / ICOS-17) Daejeon, South Korea, June 22 – 27 2008, PR-2
- M.C. Achilonu, S.L. Bonnet & J.H. van der Westhuizen: SYNTHESIS OF PROANTHOCYANIDINS PART 1. THE FIRST OXIDATIVE FORMATION OF THE INTERFLAVANYL BOND IN PROCYANIDINS at the Internatioanl Conference in Organic Synthesis (IUPAC / ICOS-17) Daejeon, South Korea, June 22 – 27 2008, PN-98
- R.M. Montsho, S.L. Bonnet & J.H. van der Westhuizen: THE REACTION BETWEEN α-KETO ACIDS AND PHLOROGLUCINOL at the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC): International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry, St Petersburg August 27 - 31, 2007, P 199
- Z .Han, S.L. Bonnet & J.H. van der Westhuizen: SYNTHESIS OF XANTHINE DERIVATIVES BY PHOTOCHEMICAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF PENTOXIFYLLINE: A BIDENTATE CHROMOPHORE at the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC): International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry, St Petersburg , August 27 - 31, 2007, P 28.
- Anette Allemann, Ebrahim Wadiwala, Robin Learmonth, Susan L. Bonnet and Jan H. van der Westhuizen: DIRECT EXTRACTION OF ROSE GERANIUM OIL FROM OIL GLANDS AND TRICHOMES TO DETERMINE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION at Chemrawn XII (IUPAC) Stellenbosch 2007 - The Role of Chemistry in Sustainable Agriculture and Human Wellbeing in Africa
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