In the first comprehensive biological assessment of the tambjamine class of marine alkaloids, synthetically derived samples of compounds 1-9 have been subjected to evaluation as antimicrobial agents and screened for their cytotoxic effects on various human cancer cell lines. Most were strongly active against the fungus Malassezia furfur (>amphotericin B) and showed considerable, but non-selective, antiproliferative activity against both human cancer and normal cell lines. Tambjamines I and J (6 and 7, resp.) displayed significant apoptosis-inducing effects.

The enantiomerically pure and readily available metabolites 10-12 have been converted over four simple steps into the epoxyquinol derivatives 22-24, respectively. Compounds 23 and 24 or their immediate precursors have been exploited in efficient total syntheses of (-)-bromoxone (ent-1), (-)-epiepoformin (ent-2), (-)-harveynone (4), (+)-panepophenanthrin (6), and (+)-hexacyclinol (9).

The acetate salts of tambjamines C, E, and F (2-4, respectively), as well as those of the related alkaloids BE-18591 (5) and 6, have been prepared by treatment of bipyrrole aldehyde 16 with the relevant amine in the presence of acetic acid. The 5'-bromo-analogue, 30, of compound 16 has also been prepared and used to obtain the acetate salts of tambjamines G, H, I, and J (8-11 respectively).

The epoxyquinol derivatives (–)-bromoxone acetate (ent-1) and (–)-tricholomenyn A (2) have been prepared from the cis-1,2-dihydrocatechols 3 and 4, respectively. Compounds 3 and 4 are themselves obtained in enantiomerically pure form through the whole-cell biotransformation of the corresponding halobenzene.

No abstract

D‐Ring‐seco‐limonoids (tetranortriterpenoids), such as gedunin and xylogranin B display anti‐cancer activity, acting via inhibition of Hsp90 and/or associated chaperon machinery (e.g., p23). Despite this, these natural products have received relatively little attention, both in terms of an enabling synthetic approach (which would allow access to derivatives), and as a consequence their structure–activity relationship (SAR). Disclosed herein is a generally applicable synthetic route to the BCD ring system of the seco‐D‐ring double bond containing limonoids. Furthermore, cell based assays revealed the first skeletal fragment that exhibited inhibition of the p23 enzyme at a level which was equipotent to that of gedunin, despite being much less structurally complex.

Gedunin, first isolated in 1960, displays a remarkable range of biological activity, but has yet to receive dedicated synthetic attention from a ground up construction perspective. Presented herein is a successfully executed approach to the fully functionalized ABC ring system of this challengingly complex natural product.

Herein we describe a direct, multicomponent assembly of 1,5-enynes. The titanocene-catalyzed coupling of an aryl aldehyde, iodoalkyne, and allylsilane enables the convergent and rapid synthesis of this versatile architectural motif in good to excellent yields.