This review article examines the diaryl ether scaffold found in natural products, related analogs and innovative molecules. It looks at encompassing synthesis, structure-activity relationships (SARs), and studies on biological action, namely in the context of anti-cancer activity. The aim of this review is to show that the diaryl ether scaffold is an invaluable structure for the design of anticancer drugs. It focuses essentially on work published from January 2000 to March 2012.

No abstract

An efficient formal total synthesis of (+)-gephyrotoxin is described. The key step of our strategy relies on the diastereoselective reduction of a chiral pyrrolidine beta-enamino ester obtained by condensation of ( S)-phenylglycinol on a protected 8-hydroxy-3,6-dioxooctanoate.