Advances in the Total Synthesis of Aflatoxins

Liyan Yang; Zhonglei Wang

doi:10.3389/fchem.2021.779765

Advances in the Total Synthesis of Aflatoxins

Front Chem. 2021 Nov 30:9:779765. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2021.779765. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Liyan Yang¹, Zhonglei Wang^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Physics and Physical Engineering, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China.
² Key Laboratory of Green Natural Products and Pharmaceutical Intermediates in Colleges and Universities of Shandong Province, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Life-Organic Analysis of Shandong Province, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China.
⁴ School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Aflatoxins, which are produced by Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus nomius, and Aspergillus parasiticus, are a group of pentacyclic natural products with difuran and coumarin skeletons. They mainly include aflatoxin B₁, B₂, G₁, G₂, M₁, and M₂. Biologically, aflatoxins are of concern to human health as they can be present as contaminants in food products. The unique skeletons of aflatoxins and their risk to human health have led to the publication of nine remarkable total syntheses (including three asymmetric syntheses) and ten formal total syntheses (including four asymmetric formal syntheses) of aflatoxins in the past 55 years. To better understand the mechanism of the biological activity of aflatoxins and their presence in samples from the food industry, this review summarizes progress in the total synthesis of aflatoxins.

Keywords: aflatoxins; contaminants; formal syntheses; natural products; total syntheses.

Publication types

Review