Recent advances in the total synthesis of cyclopropane-containing natural products

In this tutorial review, recent advances in the synthesis of cyclopropane-containing natural products are discussed, highlighting the application of novel synthetic methodologies and innovative synthetic strategies in the construction of highly functionalized cyclopropanes. The examples showcased herein aim to inspire students and practitioners of organic synthesis to seek further advances in the chemical synthesis of cyclopropanes, both in the context of target-oriented syntheses and method developments.     

Recent progress toward the total synthesis of humulanolides

The humulanolides are a series of sesquiterpene lactones, most of which have unique and challenging structure. The humulanolides have exhibited anticancer activity. The combinations of fascinating structural motifs and promising pharmacological properties have prompted significant interest in the synthetic community. In this review, we provide a summary of recent progress regarding the total synthesis of humulanolides.     

Progress on the total synthesis of natural products in China: From 2006 to 2010

This paper summarizes the progress on the total syntheses of natural products accomplished in mainland China during the period from 2006 to 2010.The overview focuses on the first total synthesis of natural products of contemporary interest including alkaloids,cyclopeptides and cyclic depsipeptides,macrolides,terpenoids and steroids,saponins and glycosides.The development of novel synthetic strategies and methodologies,and application of new selective synthetic methods in the total syntheses of natural products are included as well.     

Chemoenzymatic total synthesis of cryptocaryalactone natural products

A new chemoenzymatic route for the preparation of cryptocaryalactones natural products using a kinetic resolution process as the key step is described. Novozyme-435 catalyzed hydrolysis of the prochiral (±)-monoester 7 afforded the precursors of cryptocaryalactones with high enantiomeric excess and excellent yields. The compounds (4S,6S)-7 and (4R,6R)-7 were converted to (+)-(6R,2′S)-cryptocaryalactone (1) and (?)-(6S,2′R)-cryptocaryalactone (2), respectively by employing Wittig-olefination, lactonization and acylation reactions.     

Recent topics of the stereodivergent synthesis of natural products

A variety of natural products, a valuable source of drug lead compounds, coexist with their stereoisomers as congeners. For pursuing the structural elucidation and the structure–activity relationship study of natural products, it is needed to establish the streamlined synthetic route to supply natural products and their stereoisomers. Divergent pathway is one of the synthetic strategies to deliver more than one target compound. In this digest, selected examples of the stereodivergent approach toward the synthesis of natural products are described. Especially, this digest focuses on common synthetic intermediates and stereodiversification steps from the common intermediates to reach the target compounds.     

Asymmetric total synthesis of dibenzocyclooctadiene lignan natural products

[structure: see text] Full details of the asymmetric total syntheses of the dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans interiotherin A, angeloylgomisin R, gomisin O, and gomisin E (epigomisin O) are presented. The syntheses were based on a unified synthetic strategy involving a novel crotylation using the Leighton auxiliary that occurred with excellent asymmetric induction (>98:2 enantiomeric ratio), a diastereoselective hydroboration/Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction sequence, and an atropdiastereoselective biarylcuprate coupling, both of which occurred with total (>20:1) stereocontrol. The syntheses were achieved in six to eight steps from simple aromatic precursors.     

Applications of Mitsunobu Reaction in total synthesis of natural products

The Mitsunobu Reaction allows the conversion of primary and secondary alcohols to esters, phenyl ethers, thioethers and some other compounds. The nucleophile employed should be acidic, since one of the reagents, diethylazodicarboxylate (DEAD) must be protonated during the course of the reaction, preventing from the formation of unwanted side products. In this review, we try to focus on the scope and preparative synthetic applications of Mitsunobu reaction as a key step in the total synthesis of biologically active natural products.     

Recent progress toward synthesis of chlorosulfolipids: total synthesis and methodology

Chlorosulfolipids (CSLs) are an intriguing family of natural products featuring highly chlorinated linear hydrocarbon skeletons. Although CSLs were first isolated in 1962, chemical synthesis of CSLs was hampered because relevant methods for stereoselective construction of the polychlorinated motifs of CSLs were scarce. Since Carreira’s first total synthesis of the CSL mytilipin A in 2009, several groups, including our own, have reported total syntheses of CSLs. As a result of these total syntheses, important progress has been made in the development of reliable synthetic methods for stereoselective polychlorination. In this digest, we summarize the total syntheses of CSLs by focusing on synthetic methods for stereoselective polychlorination of the organic frameworks of CSLs.     

Expedient total synthesis of pyrrothine natural products and analogs

This paper describes an expedient and straightforward total synthesis of the two pyrrothine natural products holomycin (7 steps, 11% overall) and xenorhabdin I (7 steps, 11% overall) and analogs thereof via a common late-stage intermediate. The pathway proceeds via the pyrrothine hydrochloride intermediate (6 steps, 17% overall) which also gave access to very fast synthesis of analogs as demonstrated by the synthesis of , and (7 steps, 11-12% overall).     

Applications of Knoevenagel condensation reaction in the total synthesis of natural products

Monatshefte für Chemie - Chemical Monthly - The Knoevenagel condensation reaction is a prominent organic reaction commonly being utilized in the total synthesis of natural and biologically...     

Applications of sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation in the total synthesis of natural products

Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation involves the reaction of an alkene with osmium tetroxide in the presence of a chiral quinine ligand to form an optically active vicinal diol. This reaction was primarily developed by Sharpless based on the already known racemic Upjohn dihydroxylation. The chiral diols obtained by Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation are important intermediates in organic synthesis. Herein, we emphasise the applications of Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation in the total synthesis of natural products.     

Recent advances of desymmetrization protocol applied in natural product total synthesis

Desymmetrization synthesis strategy has simplified and improved the efficiency of synthesis, which attracted great attention in the past few decades. Since the strategy has been developed rapidly and got a wide range of applications in natural product total synthesis, the rules are urgent to be summarized. In this Letter, the recent developments of desymmetrization protocol in natural product total synthesis were summarized.     

The role of Lawesson's reagent in the total synthesis of macrocyclic natural products

This review, including 111 references, describes the applications of Lawesson's reagent (LR) [2,4-bis(p-methoxyphenyl)-1,3,2,4-dithiadiphosphetane-2,4-dithione] for the total synthesis of macrocyclic natural products. LR is a versatile reagent and shows excellent regioselectivity, chemoselectivity, and offers the products in high yield. The thionation of carbonyl moieties present in macrocyclic natural products, and cyclization to construct key heterocyclic fragments is described. Moreover, this review highlights the medicinal significance of the natural products.     

Asymmetric construction of all-carbon quaternary stereocenters in the total synthesis of natural products

Structure units containing all-carbon quaternary stereogenic center are found in many bioactive natural products. However, enantioselective construction of this type of structure units has been a formidable challenge for synthetic community due to the steric hindrance enforced by all-carbon quaternary stereocenters. In this review, we present the achievements made by Chinese scientists in the area of asymmetric synthesis of all-carbon quaternary stereocenters in natural products during the past two years.     

Recent developments in the total synthesis of fungicidal natural products--a crop protection perspective

Natural products play an important role as lead structures for the identification of novel active ingredients in crop protection. As it is the case in the pharmaceutical industry, however, many crop protection companies have substantially decreased their in-house efforts in natural product exploration. Therefore, joint projects with academic research groups become more and more important in the field. This review describes several examples for successful collaborations in the field of fungicidal natural products.     

Recent advances of intermolecular Diels–Alder reaction in bio-inspired synthesis of natural products

The Diels–Alder(D–A)reaction is one of the most powerful reactions in organic synthesis.The intermolecular D–A reaction attracts much less attentions than its intramolecular counterpart in natural product synthesis,possibly due to the issues of reactivity and selectivity.In the past decade,the intermolecular D–A reaction has been increasingly utilized in the total synthesis of structurally complex natural products.In this article,we present a few examples for the elegant applications of the intermolecular D–A reaction that are inspired by biosynthetic hypotheses of the target natural products.These examples demonstrate that D–A reaction is not only useful for preparing building blocks but also powerful for coupling structurally complicated and sterically demanding segments in a highly chemo-and stereo-controlled fashion,which may inspire further developments of intermolecular D–A reaction from both strategy and methodology perspectives.     

Crotylsilane reagents in the synthesis of complex polyketide natural products: total synthesis of (+)-discodermolide

An efficient, highly convergent stereocontrolled synthesis of (+)-discodermolide has been achieved with 2.1% overall yield (27 steps longest linear sequence). The absolute stereochemistry of the C1-C6 (12), C7-C14 (13), and C15-C24 (11) subunits was introduced using asymmetric crotylation methodology. Key elements of the synthesis include the use of hydrozirconation-cross-coupling methodology for the construction of C13-C14 (Z)-olefin, acetate aldol reaction to construct the C6-C7 bond and install the C7 stereocenter with high levels of 1,5-anti stereoinduction, and the use of palladium-mediated sp(2)-sp(3) cross-coupling reaction to join the advanced fragments, which assembled the carbon framework of discodermolide.