Synthesis of amorphane and cadinane sesquiterpenes from fabiana imbricata

The monoterpene (−)-isopulegol (7) has been used as a starting material for the total synthesis in eight/nine steps of two sesquiterpenes which were recently isolated from the medicinal plant Fabiana imbricata. Use of this approach has shown that a structure proposed as 3,11-amorphadiene (3) should be revised to that of 4,11-cadinadiene (18) and confirmed the structure proposed for the natural product 4-amorphen-1 1-ol (1).