A small group of People with Parkinson's disease, of which I am one, are doing some research to try to standardize a preparation method to make precise quantities of the isothiocyanate sulforaphane from glucoraphanin, a glucosinolate found in Broccoli seeds. The glucoraphanin is hydrolysed by the enzyme myrosinase to form an unstable intermediate which then undergoes a Lossen-type rearrangement to form sulforaphane or alternatively sulforaphane nitrile. We need to measure the sulforaphane concentration as a function of temperature and time during the reaction in order to choose the best temperature and processing time to get the most constant yield.

You can find research program of this group here... https://patientresearcher.com/

and my research on the application to Parkinson's disease here :

Preprint Role of the transcription factor Nrf2 and Redox Balance in P...

The Lossen rearrangement equation can be found on page 11 of this document, "Reflections of a Scientist with Parkinson's disease", which you can download from here

https://patientresearcher.com/documents/

We already know a lot about this process but we have reason to believe that it is more complicated than that, possibly due to simultaneous decomposition of sulforaphane. We would appreciate any help from scientists interested in this subject especially those with access to laboratories equipped to help resolve these issues.

We intend to use this method to analyse for isothiocyanates,

Article The 1,2-Benzenedithiole-Based Cyclocondensation Assay: A Val...

Finally, if anyone has a working UV-Vis spectrometer that they don't need and could donate it to the Group, we would be very grateful. I am based in Grenoble France.

Albert Wright