Recently, structural elucidation of natural products has undergone a revolution. The combined use of different modern spectroscopic methods has allowed obtaining a complete structural assignment of natural products using small amounts of sample. However, despite the extraordinary ongoing advances in spectroscopy, the mischaracterization of natural products has been and remains a recurrent problem, especially when the substance presents several stereogenic centers. The misinterpretation of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data has resulted in frequent reports addressing structural reassignment. In this context, a great effort has been devoted to developing quantum chemical calculations that simulate NMR parameters accurately, allowing to achieve a more precise spectral interpretation. In this work, we employed a protocol for theoretical calculations of 1H NMR chemical shifts and coupling constants using density functional theory (DFT), followed by the application of the DP4+ method to revisit the structure of Heliannuol L, a member of the Heliannuol class, isolated from Helianthus annuus. Our results indicate that the originally proposed structure of Heliannuol L needs a stereochemical reassignment, placing the hydroxyl bonded to C10 in the opposite side of the methyl and hydroxyl groups bonded to C7 and C8, respectively.

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In the past, structure determination of natural products was an arduous process depending almost entirely on chemical synthesis, mainly by derivatization and degradation processes, taking years of effort. Recently, structural elucidation of natural products has undergone a revolution. Nowadays, with the combined use of different advanced spectroscopic methods, it became possible to completely assign the structure of natural products using small amounts of sample. However, despite the extraordinary ongoing advances in spectroscopy, the mischaracterization of natural products has been and remains a recurrent problem, especially in the presence of several chiral centers. The misinterpretation of NMR data has resulted in frequent reports addressing the issue of structural reassignment. In this context, a great effort has been devoted to the development of quantum chemical calculations to predict NMR parameters, and thus achieve a more accurate spectral interpretation. In this work, we applied a protocol for theoretical calculations of 1H NMR chemical shifts in order to establish the correct and unequivocal structure of Helianuol L, a member of the Heliannuol’s class, isolated from Helianthus annus. These secondary metabolites present a broad spectrum of biological activities, including the allelochemical activity, making them promising candidates as natural agrochemicals. It is worth mentioning, however, that the process of elucidating the structure of Heliannuol L was based on structural correlations with molecules already known in the literature, where few stereochemical analyses were performed. In this way, based on the fact that other compounds of the Heliannuol’s class had their structure previously reassigned, the verification of the proposed structure of Heliannuol L becomes of great importance.

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