(−)‐Pumiliotoxin‐C‐hydrochloride, as well as its unnatural enantiomer, have been synthesized in an enantioselective manner starting from (S)‐ or (R)‐norvaline, respectively. In the crucial cycloaddition step 11 → 12 (cf. scheme 2) the chiral center of 11 controls to a major extent the three developing centers of chirality. This synthesis shows unambigously the (2S)‐configuration of natural pumiliotoxin‐C.

Chamomile extracts are used therapeutically for their antiinflammatory effect and also for their spasmolytic activity.

An efficient asymmetric synthesis in nine steps of natural (À)-pumiliotoxin C (1), a decahydroquinoline alkaloid found in the skin of Central American frog species, is presented. The enantiomerically pure starting material (S)-norvalinol (3), obtained from commercial (S)-norvaline, was cyclized in a one-pot procedure to the tosylated aziridine 5. Ring opening with propargylmagnesium bromide led to the acetylenic sulfonamide tosylamide 6, free of the allenic isomer. Compound 6 was methylated on the acetylenic C-atom, reduced, and deprotected with Na in liquid NH 3 to give the (E)-configured unsaturated amine 8, which was condensed with crotonaldehyde to the imine 9 and N-acylated with isobutanoyl chloride to the key intermediate 2.Intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction furnished a diastereoisomeric mixture of N-protected octahydroquinolines 10. After catalytic hydrogenation and cleavage of the amide, natural 1 was obtained as the main product in 25% overall yield; 3.2% of its isomer 11 with the inverse configurations in position 4a, 5, and 8a was also isolated.

While it is known that chamomile contains matricine, so far it was not clear whether this chamazulene precursor is as pharmacologically active as chamazulene itself. As guajazulene, moreover, is frequently

Abstract The stereochemistry of the bisaboloids in chamomile-with the exception of bisabolol-oxide C-has been elucidated. The in-vitro-examination of the mutual convertibilities of some bisaboloids gave evidence for the stereochemical accordance of the common chiral centres of all the bisaboloids. The absolute configurations of the remaining third asymmetric carbon atoms in bisabololoxide A and B have been determined by NMR spectrometric studies in comparison with their unnatural semisynthetic epimers. All the stereogenic centres of the bisabololoxides A and B, of (-)-α-bisabolol and of bisabolonoxide A turn out to be S-configurated.