Myristic acid crystallizes as 1:1 mixture with its sodium salt (acid soap) at pH 9.8, as pure sodium salt (soap) upon addition of sodium chloride and gives long fibers (curds) of a carboxylate monohydrate at pH 11.5. Transmission electron microscopy shows micellar fibers as structural units of the curds. Curvature of the myristate bilayer is enforced by hydration, not by repulsive forces between anions. Ephedrinium and pseudoephedrinium myristate produce stable isolated fibers of bimolecular thickness in water. They dissolve magnesium octaethylporphyrin in a chiral arrangement and show strong CD effects. The aqueous solution is viscoelastic. Twisted ribbons were obtained from the cationic analogue cetyltrimethylammonium with the chiral adenosine monophosphate counterion.

The enantioselectivity of the in vitro conversion of simple prochiral and chiral aliphatic alkenes into oxiranes by liver microsomes of untreated or induced (phenobarbital) rats, of untreated or induced (phenobarbital, benzo[a] pyrene) mice, and of humans was determined by complexation gas chromatography. The enantiomeric excess (ee) of the epoxides extends from 0 (trimethyloxirane) to 50% (ethyloxirane). The configuration (R or S) of the enantiomers formed in excess is consistent for homologous oxiranes but is species dependent and in some cases influenced by enzyme induction. Enantioselectivity differences of aliphatic alkene epoxidation by human liver microsomes of four individuals are negligible.

The extent of substrate enantioselectivity and regioselectivity of a series of aliphatic 2,3-dialkyl- and trialkylsubstituted oxiranes in their in vitro epoxide-hydrolase-catalyzed hydrolysis depends on the size of the alkyl residues and on the substitution pattern of the oxirane ring. The enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of cis-oxiranes, containing at least one methyl substituent, shows complete or nearly complete substrate enantioselectivity and regioselectivity with nucleophilic attack by water occurring with inversion of configuration at the methylsubstituted ring carbon atom of (S)-configuration. In the hydrolysis of the isomeric trans-oxiranes, both enantiomers are metabolized with a higher rate for the (2S;3S)-enantiomer. The conversion of trimethyloxirane occurs with high substrate enantioselectivity in favor of the (S)-enantiomer and with complete regioselectivity at the monomethylsubstituted ring carbon atom. The differentiation of the enantiotopic ring carbon atoms (product enantioselectivity) in the smallest aliphatic meso-oxirane, cis-2,3-dimethyloxirane, leads to (2R;3R)-butane-2,3-diol with ee = 86%. cis-2-Ethyl-3-propyloxirane, possessing alkyl residues larger than methyl, represents an extremely poor substrate in the epoxide-hydrolase-catalyzed hydrolysis process.

The fully reversible synthesis of noncovalent assemblies which are held together by directed bonds is called synkinesis. Micdlar fibres with a distinct stereochemistry and gels are formed by amphlphfles forming strong hydrogen bonds between chiral head groups. The 3D-crystallization of such molecular assemblies, without dominating repulsive hydration forces, is prevented by the curvature of the fibres. Curvature might perhaps be directly connected with chirality. Addition of enantiomers often leads to an irreversible destruction of gels. Recent developments relating to 'hydropbobic water' in /~ngstriim-wide membrane gaps are also shortly discussed.