A Short Enantioselective Total Synthesis of (—)-Englerin A

摘要

The guaiane sesquiterpene (—)-englerin A (1) has attracted much attention from chemists, biologists, and physicians since its isolation from the East African plant Phyllanthus engleri by Beutler in 2009. This is due to the highly selective action of this natural product against renal cancer cell lines. Furthermore, the oxygen-bridged bicyclic hydroazulene framework is a challenging molecular structure with seven contiguous stereogenic centers. These two features have triggered intense synthetic work aiming at the preparation of 1 and on structure-activity relationship studies. Herein we report an enantioselective total synthesis of (—)-englerin A (1) that allows the construction of this bioactive compound in a few preparatively simple steps.