DOI: 10.1002/open.201800214
Cyclopropylmethyl Protection of Phenols: Total Synthesis
of the Resveratrol Dimers Anigopreissin A and
Resveratrol–Piceatannol Hybrid
We demonstrate the versatile use of the cyclopropylmethyl
group to protect phenols through the total synthesis of two
benzofuran-based natural products, that is, anigopreissin A
and the resveratrol–piceatannol hybrid. This protecting group
is a good alternative to the conventional methyl group, owing
to the feasibility of introduction, stability under a variety of
conditions, and its relative ease of removal under different
acidic conditions.
HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (IC50 =8 mM) and two mutant en-
zymes which are resistant to the clinical drug nevirapine.[14] Re-
sveratrol-piceatannol hybrid was isolated in 2015 from a grape
extract (vitis vinifera), which was first fractionated using a hepa-
titis C virus replication inhibition assay.[15] These natural prod-
ucts have previously been synthesized using methyl protecting
groups, which are removed under harsh acidic conditions such
as BBr3 or BCl3/TBAI. These conditions are frequently not com-
patible with the target compound and result in formation of
undesired products and low yields.[16] For example, BBr3 failed
to give anigopreissin A[11] or shoreaphenol[17] from their corre-
sponding permethylated analogues, whereas anigopreissin A
was only obtained in 23% yield when using BCl3/TBAI.[11] Thus,
the unpredictability of the demethylation step for many of
these polyphenolic natural products indicate a need for alter-
native protecting groups.
Heterocyclic compounds are of vital importance in medicinal
chemistry and appear in a variety of approved drugs and bio-
logically active compounds.[1] Among those heterocyclic com-
pounds, the benzofuran scaffold exists widely in natural and
synthetic compounds with an enormous range of pharmaco-
logical activities, such as antibacterial,[2] antifungal,[3] anti-in-
flammatory,[4] antioxidative,[5] antiviral[6] and antineoplastic.[7]
Furthermore, benzofuran derivatives are used as fluorescent
sensors in organic chemistry.[8] Our interest in these scaffolds
originates from our finding of the resveratrol tetramer,
(À)-hopeaphenol—a complex plant stilbenoid isolated from
the Papua Guinean tree species Anisoptera thurifera and Ani-
soptera polyandra—as an irreversible inhibitor of the type III
secretion in gram-negative pathogens Yersinia pseudotubercu-
losis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.[9] Based on this finding, we
initiated studies to expand our knowledge on the chemistry
and biology of these scaffolds and recently published total
syntheses of benzofuran based natural products (Æ)-ampelop-
sin B and (Æ)-e-viniferin.[10] Subsequently, we reported the total
synthesis of other benzofuran based natural products viz. vini-
ferifuran, anigopreissin A and resveratrol–piceatannol hybrid;[11]
as well as natural product inspired libraries based on the ben-
zofuran scaffold.[12] Anigopreissin A, a naturally occurring dimer
of resveratrol, shows low antimicrobial activity against S.
aureus and S. pyogene.[13] It is also a potent inhibitor of the
In this work, we explored the use of cyclopropylmethyl
(cPrMe) ether inspired by a report from Nagata et al., in which
the cPrMe ethers were selectively cleaved under acidic condi-
tions and yet stable to a wide range of reaction conditions.[18]
Our group has applied the cPrMe protection during the total
synthesis of the resveratrol oligomer (Æ)-ampelopsin B that al-
lowed an ultimate three-step one-pot deprotection, epimeriza-
tion and cyclization to form the target compound.[10] Given the
lability of the cPrMe ethers to acids and the feasibility to
cleave it off under variety of conditions, and in continuation of
our efforts on the polyphenol natural products,[12] we herein
described the successful use of cPrMe as a protecting group in
the total synthesis of anigopreissin A and resveratrol–piceatan-
nol hybrid.
To date, three synthetic strategies for preparation of anigo-
preissin A have been published.[11,19] The earlier two synthesis
were reported with the constraint that only permethylated ani-
gopreissin A was obtained.[19] Despite several attempts to de-
protect the methyl ether groups using for example, BBr3,
BBr3·SMe2 and L-Selectride, the authors observed either decom-
position or partial deprotection.[19a] The third and successful
total synthesis of this natural product was published by our
group in 2016 in which the permethylated anigopreissin A was
deprotected in 23% yield using BCl3/TBAI.[11] Based on these re-
sults we moved on and explored the cPrMe group as an alter-
native phenolic protecting group.
[a] Dr. A. Kumar,+ Dr. M. Saleeb,+ D. Werz, Prof. M. Elofsson
Department of Chemistry, Umeꢀ University
90187, Umeꢀ (Sweden)
[+] These authors contributed equally to this work
Supporting Information and the ORCID identification number(s) for the
author(s) of this article can be found under:
The synthesis of anigopreissin A using cPrMe protection
commenced with preparation of the key intermediates 4, 8
and 10 (Scheme 1). The terminal alkyne 4 was synthesized in
three steps from 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde 1, starting with the
protection of the free phenolic group with the cyclopropyl-
ꢀ 2018 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
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