Synthesis of shikalkin and certain related compounds

A successful total synthesis of a biologically active pigment from plants of the Boraginaceae family was carried out with naphthazarine as the starting material, and using the 1,4,5,8-tetramethoxynaphthalene, the corresponding 2-vinyl derivative and its epoxide or a cyclopropane adduct with diazoacetic ester at the key stages. In the course of developing the scheme of the synthesis of shikalkin, its three analogs were obtained, differing in the nature of the monoterpenoid side chain.For preliminary report, see [1].Pacific Ocean Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 690022 Vladivostok. N. D. Zelinskii Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117913 Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 8, pp. 1901–1910, August, 1992.     

Study on the enantiomeric ratio of the pharmaceutical substances alkannin and shikonin

The chiral pair alkannin and shikonin (A/S) are potent pharmaceutical substances with a wide spectrum of biological activity; their enantiomeric ratio does not influence the major biological activity studied hitherto. Nevertheless, in pharmaceutical development and approval of chiral drugs from the Health and Regulatory Authorities, full documentation of methods of analysis of enantiomeric drugs, is required in order to evaluate the enantiomeric purity of starting materials and final products and to control the stability of enantiomers in pharmaceutical formulations under several experimental conditions. In the present study, the enantiomeric ratio of A/S was determined in several commercial samples of alkannin and shikonin and also the proportion of A/S derivatives in several Alkanna root samples, which are all used as active ingredients in pharmaceuticals. Light and air proved not to influence the enantiomeric ratio of A/S on a shikonin commercial sample, and temperature also did not alter the A/S ratio on shikonin and alkannin commercial samples. Microencapsulation of alkannin and shikonin commercial samples in ethylcellulose microspheres and also molecular inclusion of a shikonin commercial sample in beta-hydroxypropyl-cyclodextrin, which are used as drug delivery systems, did not alter the A/S enantiomeric ratio.     

Chemistry of naphthazarin derivatives. 10. First direct observation of prototropic tautomerism of 1"-hydroxyalkylnaphthazarins by IR spectroscopy

It is found by IR spectroscopy that 1"-hydroxyalkylnaphthazarins in aprotic organic solvents exist as a mixture of the 1,4- and 1,5-naphthoquinonoid tautomers.