Facile access to evodiakine enabled by aerobic copper-catalyzed oxidative rearrangement

Org Biomol Chem. 2019 Oct 9;17(39):8811-8815. doi: 10.1039/c9ob01832h.

Abstract

Oxidation as a fundamentally important method for the synthesis of complex structures is difficult to achieve in a selective manner. Evodiakine, a complex natural product possessing an unprecedented ring system (6/5/5/7/6), has a high oxidation state without a practical solution. Herein, we report the first synthesis of evodiakine via aerobic copper-catalyzed late-stage functionalization of evodiamine.