Synthesis and antiproliferative in-vitro activity of natural flavans and related compounds

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/ardp.200700077

The total synthesis of natural flavan racemates (±) 1, (±) 2 and natural flavones 3, 4 had thus been achieved. A straightforward synthetic procedure of flavans via the Pd-C catalyzed hydrogenation/hydrogenolysis of corresponding flavones was developed. Furthermore, the antiproliferative activities of racemic flavans (±) 1, (±) 2, flavones 3, 4, and five synthetic intermediates toward human SGC-7901, BEL-7402, HeLa, and HL-60 cell lines in vitro were evaluated by MTT assay, and the racemic flavans (±) 1 were found to have significant antiproliferative activity against all four cell lines.