The synthesis of [2,3,4-C3]glycitein

Glycitein is one of the soy isoflavones which have attracted considerable interest in recent years due to their possible beneficial effects on human health. However, glycitein has been much less studied than other members of this family due to the lack of good methods for its synthesis. Herein we report a short high yielding synthesis of a multiply ¹³C-labelled glycitein derivative, [2,3,4-¹³C₃]glycitein, which has been employed as an internal standard in LC–MS analysis. A key feature is a rapid and efficient synthesis of 2,4-dihydroxy-5-methoxy-[1′,2′-¹³C₂]acetophenone via acetylation of isovanillin with [¹³C₂]acetyl chloride followed by a Baeyer–Villiger reaction, selective hydrolysis and finally a BF₃ catalysed Fries rearrangement. An aldol reaction using 4-benzyloxy-[carbonyl-¹³C]benzaldehyde gave a chalcone and then thallium(III) mediated oxidative rearrangement, deprotection and cyclisation provided the [2,3,4-¹³C₃]glycitein. The overall yield for the 8 step reaction sequence, based on [¹³C₂]acetyl chloride, was 57%.