Laurenidificin synthesis

Shoji Kobayashi and co-workers from Osaka Institute of Technology have reported in JOC on the synthesis of laurenidificin.

 

JOC paper

Inostamycin A synthesis

Sung Ho Kang and co-workers from KAIST have reported in ACIE on the synthesis of inostamycin A using lanthanum (LaCl3) to effect a transmetallation of an organolithium to organolanthanum compound, which adds onto a ketone.

 

ACIE paper

Crystalline Sponge Method to Determine Absolute Configuration

X-ray crystallography is usually a good method to determine the relative configuration of natural products (i.e. diastereomers) containing more than one stereocenter. However, the method of determining the absolute configuration of natural products is very difficult by just using X-ray crystallography. Here’s a paper from the labs of Sylvia Urban (RMIT University) and Makoto Fujita (University of Tokyo)  that reports on the use of the crystalline sponge method to determine the absolute stereochemistry of elatenyne.

 

ACIE paper 

 

Other ways to determine absolute configuration by X-ray crystallography include derivatization with a chiral reagent then crystallizing, using the effects of anomalous dispersion (Friedif values).

Teurilene through epoxide ring opening

Tomas Martin and co-workers from the Universidad de La Laguna in Spain have reported in ACIE on the synthesis of teurilene through an epoxide ring opening cascade.

ACIE paper

Heronapyrrole C synthesis

Christian Stark and colleague at the Universitat Hamburg have reported in Organic Letters on the synthesis of heronapyrrole C.

OL paper

Shi epoxidation approach for glabrescol

Jin Qu and co-workers from Nankai University have reported in Organic Letters on a synthesis of a polytetrahydrofuranyl compound using Shi epoxidation of a polyolefin intermediate.

OL paper

2 routes for elatenyne and is DFT going to be a standard for natural product structure assignment?

Deukjoon Kim (Seoul National University) and Jonathon Burton (University of Oxford) and co-workers have reported in JACS on a synthesis of elatenyne.

JACS paper

IKD-8344 synthesis

Yikang Wu and co-worker from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry have reported in ACIE on a synthesis of a natural product containing tetrahydrofurans, IKD-8344.

ACIE paper

Access to bis-THF rings

Hiromichi Fujioka and co-workers at Osaka University have reported in Organic Letters on a method to synthesize bis-tetrahydrofurans from a diol.

OL paper

Cytotoxic acetogenins

Xiang Li and co-workers from Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine have isolated some bistetrahydrofurans.

JNP paper