Home / Group News / Group News & Announcements
Our Full Paper Was Published As Cover Article on Chem. Asian. J.
Our new paper regarding Total Synthesis of Maoecrystal V has been published online in Chemistry, An Asian Journal, 2014, Early view. This achievement was completed by Wei-Bin Zhang with their coworkers Dr. Guang Lin, Wen-Bin Shao instructed by Dr. Jian-Xian Gong and Prof. Zhen Yang.
Maoecrystal V is a novel diterpenoid, which was originally isolated from the leaves of the Chinese medicinal herb Isodon eriocalyx in 2004. It has been found to be selectively cytotoxic towards HeLa cells, with an IC50 value of 20 ng/mL. Significant research efforts have been devoted to the synthesis of maoecrystal V because of its intriguing biological properties, rarity in nature, and complex structural features. Herein, we describe our recent investigations, which have culminated in the total synthesis of (±)-maoecrystal V. The current strategy involved three key steps for the successful construction of the key tetrahydrofuran oxa-bridge skeleton, including a Wessely oxidative dearomatization, a novel intramolecular Diels–Alder reaction, and a Rh(II)-catalyzed O-H insertion reaction.
