The Crystal Structures of O,O‐Dimethylalpinumisoflavone and 5‐O‐Methyl‐4'‐O‐(3‐methyl‐but‐2‐en‐1‐yl)alpinumisoflavone

The petrol extract of the rootbark of Milletia Thonningii obtained by column chromatography afforded sixteen different crystalline samples to be isolated. The crystal structures of two of these compounds, O,O‐Dimethylalpinumisoflavone (I) and 5‐O‐Methyl‐4'‐O‐(3‐methyl‐but‐2‐en‐1‐yl)alpinumisoflavone (II) are being reported here. (II) has two independent molecules in the asymmetric unit and differs from (I) in a longer side chain attached to C(15) of the phenyl ring. The structural features of the three molecules in the title compounds are reported and compared. The derivatives, being subject of this article are the first reported crystal structures where the isoflavone fragment is fused to a further six membered ring that results in a tricyclic ring system. The benzopyrone fragments are planar. The dihedral angles between the benzopyrone fragment and the phenyl ring being 55.38(6)° for (I) and 44.75(15)° /44.64(15)° for the respective independent molecules of (II) are within the range of values observed for similar structures.