Xanthocyclines: 5-oxaanthracyclines (7,8,9,10-tetrahydrobenzoxanthen-12-one)

Article abstract of DOI:10.1139/v82-281

The anthracycline antibiotics daunorubicin and adriamycin are potent antitumor agents.It has recently been suggested that 5-oxaanthracycline analogs of these compounds might show reduced cardiotoxicity, a property that limits the clinical use of the anthracyclines.In this paper we describe the condensation-cyclization reactions of 2-methylchromone-3-carboxylate with cyclohexanones, a reaction that leads ultimately to the xanthocycline skeleton.