Unified Total Synthesis of Stemoamide-Type Alkaloids by Chemoselective Assembly of Five-Membered Building Blocks

J Am Chem Soc. 2017 Dec 20;139(50):18386-18391. doi: 10.1021/jacs.7b10944. Epub 2017 Dec 11.

Abstract

A unified total synthesis of stemoamide-type alkaloids is reported. Our synthetic approach features the chemoselective convergent assembly of five-membered building blocks via stemoamide as the common precursor to tetracyclic natural products. The synthesis consists of two successive coupling reactions of the three five-membered building blocks. The first coupling reaction is the vinylogous Michael addition/reduction sequence, which enables the gram-scale synthesis of stemoamide. The second coupling reaction is a chemoselective nucleophilic addition to stemoamide. While the lactone-selective nucleophilic addition to stemoamide affords saxorumamide and isosaxorumamide, the lactam-selective reductive nucleophilic addition leads to the formation of stemonine. Both chemoselective nucleophilic additions enable direct modification of stemoamide, resulting in highly concise and efficient total syntheses of the stemoamide-type alkaloids.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alkaloids / chemical synthesis*
  • Alkaloids / chemistry
  • Heterocyclic Compounds, 3-Ring / chemical synthesis*
  • Heterocyclic Compounds, 3-Ring / chemistry
  • Molecular Structure

Substances

  • Alkaloids
  • Heterocyclic Compounds, 3-Ring
  • stemoamide