Here, we describe an efficient and diversity-oriented entry to both (-)-artemisinin (1) and its natural antipode (+)-artemisinin, starting from commercially and readily available S-(+)- and R-(-)-citronellene, respectively. Subsequently, we answered the still open question regarding the specificity of artemisinins action. By using a drug-sensitive Plasmodium falciparum NF54 strain, we showed that the antimalarial activity of artemisinin is not stereospecific. Our straightforward and biomimetic approach to this natural endoperoxide enables the synthesis of artemisinin derivatives that are not accessible through applying current methods and may help to address the problem of emerging resistance of Plasmodium falciparum towards artemisinin.

A straightforward synthesis of C-nor-D-homo steroids starting from (+)-Wieland-Miescher ketone is reported. This convergent synthetic strategy utilizes a scalable diastereoselective Nazarov cyclization of functionalized chiral aryl vinyl ketones, allowing for further functionalization. The ability to conduct this key transformation on a multi-gram scale paves the way for the synthesis of a variety of completely new C-nor-D-homo steroids, without the need of a classic steran steroid rearrangement or achiral linear reaction sequences.

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Herein, we describe a biomimetic entry to (+)-3-hydroxymethylartemisinin (2) as well as to the artemisinin derivatives (+)-3-hydroxymethyl-9-desmethylartemisinin (16) and (+)-3-hydroxymethyl-9-epi-artemisinin (18), starting from the known and readily available chiral aldehyde 3 and alkyne 4. Subsequently, the synthesized compounds have been evaluated for their antimalarial activity against the drug-sensitive P. falciparum NF54 strain. All of them were inactive. In addition, they did not show any toxicity against L6 cells (a primary cell line derived from rat skeletal myoblasts). These results contribute to a better understanding of artemisinins mechanism of action.