Febrifugine (1a) is an antimalarial agent which was isolated from Dichroa febrifuga or Hydrangea umbellata with isofebrifugine (1b). 1) Recently Kobayashi et al. corrected the error in the absolute structures of 1a,b, as shown in Fig. 1, by achieving the asymmetric syntheses of all the stereoisomers. 2) We have developed a new synthetic method for 1a,b, 3) and our interest next focused on the structure-activity relationship (SAR) of 1a,b. The difficulty in the purification or antimalarial screening of 1a,b is isomerization 4) between 1a and 1b, which occurs via a reversible Michael reaction. We thought that a derivative in which isomerization did not occur might be a more potent compound. Although much is reported on the SAR of substituents 5) on the 4(3H)-quinazolinone ring, the only known modification of the piperidine ring involves regioisomers of the hydroxy group. 6) In this report, we describe the synthesis and antimalarial activity of derivatives (2a,b) that are regioisomers of the nitrogen atom on the piperidine ring of 1a,b.We prepared 2a,b from 1-benzyl-3-hydroxypyridinium chloride (3) in seven isolated steps by modifying our method for synthesizing 1a,b (Chart 1). The successive O-allylation, reduction, 7) and replacement 8) of the benzyloxycarbonyl (Cbz) group from 3 afforded benzyl 1-(3-allyloxy-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine)carboxylate (4) in 47% yield. The Claisen rearrangement of 4 by heating at 140°C in xylene proceeded smoothly to give benzyl 4-allyl-3-oxo-1-piperidinecarboxylate (5) in 99% yield. Reduction of 5 with sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 ) afforded trans (6a) and cis (6b) benzyl 4-allyl-3-hydroxy-1-piperidinecarboxylate as an inseparable mixture.Purification and structural determination of the inseparable mixture of 6a and 6b were achieved as shown in Chart 2. Although trans (12a) and cis (12b) benzoate produced from 6a,b were separated by column chromatography, the existence of rotomers 9) in the 1 H-NMR spectrum made the structural analysis of 12a,b difficult. Hydrogenolysis of 12a,b produced trans (13a) or cis (13b) 4-propyl-3-piperidinyl benzoate, respectively. In the 1 H-NMR spectrum, the proton at the 3 position on the piperidine ring of 13a was observed at 4.73 ppm with a coupling constant of 4.0 and 9.5 Hz. The proton on 13b, on the other hand, was observed at 5.10 ppm as a single broad peak. Pure 6a and 6b were prepared by hydrolysis of 12a and 12b and led to 7a and 7b, respectively.We previously found that reduction of benzyl 2-allyl-3-oxo-1-piperidinecarboxylate (14) with NaBH 4 at room tem- The regioisomers (2a,b) of the piperidine ring of febrifugine (1a) and isofebrifugine (1b) were synthesized from 4-allyl-3-piperidone (5). Reduction of 5 afforded a mixture of the trans and cis alcohols (6a,b) without diastereoselectivity; this result differentiated it from the reduction of 2-allyl-3-piperidone (14). The antimalarial activity of 2a,b and related compounds was tested.