Communication
Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry
in five steps to give (−)-chaetominine (1) with an overall yield
of 23.2%, and (−)-11-epi-chaetominine (ent-8) with an overall
yield of 31.7%. This validation of L-Trp as a starting material
in the chemical synthesis of (−)-chaetominine has some impli-
cations for the biosynthesis of (−)-chaetominine: (1) L-Trp
might be the starter unit; (2) instead of an early inversion
of configuration of D-Trp to L-Trp, an epimerization at C-14
of a tripeptide intermediate may possibly establish the
R-configuration at C-14 of (−)-chaetominine; (3) the acyclic
tripeptide derivative 11 (cf. A and C in Scheme 1) may serve as
a ready precursor of (−)-chaetominine. The total synthesis also
serves as a good example of step economy and redox economy,
as well as the protecting-group-free and complexity-generating
synthesis of structurally complex natural products.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for financial support from the
National Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China
(grant no. 2010CB833200), the Natural Science Foundation of
China (NSFC, grant no. 21332007), and the Program for
Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in Univer-
sity (PCSIRT) of Ministry of Education, China. We are indebted
to Prof. Z.-H. Guo (HKUST), Prof. Z.-J. Yao (NJU) and Prof. Wen
Liu (SIOC, CAS) for valuable discussion.
9 For enantioselective syntheses of chaetominine, see:
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