Recently proposed solar reflectors developed from satellite dishes have the ability to be incorporated into student laboratory procedures to eliminate electricity use while demonstrating green chemistry techniques at the same time.There have been recent attempts to make chemical synthesis procedures more environmentally friendly. As a result, demand to incorporate more green chemistry techniques into student laboratories has increased. Electricity use is one area of environmental concern because fossil fuels are used for the majority of electrical energy in the United States. An effective means for minimizing the amount of electricity needed to drive chemical reactions to completion is proposed through the use of solar parabolic reflectors. A comparative study is conducted using an electrical and solar heat source on the Diels−Alder cycloaddition reaction of maleic anhydride and anthracene. This reaction is chosen as the test reaction due to its widespread use among many undergraduate chemistry programs. Analysis of the products is performed by NMR spectroscopy.

We describe the first total synthesis of complex aspidosperma alkaloids (−)-voacinol and (−)-voacandimine C via a late-stage C7-methylenation strategy inspired by a biogenetic hypothesis. We envisioned rapid access to these natural alkaloids from a common, symmetrical precursor assembled by methylenation of a D-ring-oxidized variant of the structurally related natural product (−)-deoxoapodine. Chemoselective N9-oxidation of a pentacyclic deoxoapodine precursor enabled the synthesis of the corresponding hexacyclic C8-aminonitrile. Stereocontrolled methylenation of a C8-enamine derivative of deoxoapodine, accessed by ionization of the C8-aminonitrile, afforded a symmetrical dodecacyclic bisaminonitrile as a versatile precursor to these bisindole alkaloids. The final-stage, biosynthesis-inspired, controlled reductive opening of the oxolane substructures of this dodecacyclic intermediate provided a unified approach to (−)-voacinol and (−)-voacandimine C, while direct reduction of the same intermediate afforded the structurally related (−)-methylenebisdeoxoapodine.

We describe the first total synthesis of complex aspidosperma alkaloids (–)-voacinol and (–)-voacandimine C via a late-stage C7-methylenation strategy inspired by a biogenetic hypothesis. We envisioned rapid access to these natural alkaloids from a common, symmetrical precursor assembled by methylenation of a D-ring-oxidized variant of the structurally related natural product (–)-deoxoapodine. Chemoselective N9-oxidation of a pentacyclic deoxoapodine precursor enabled the synthesis of the corresponding hexacyclic C8-aminonitrile. Stereocontrolled methylenation of a C8-enamine derivative of deoxoapodine, accessed by ionization of the C8-aminonitrile, afforded a symmetrical dodecacyclic bisaminonitrile as a versatile precursor to these bisindole alkaloids. Final-stage, biosynthesis-inspired, controlled reductive opening of the oxolane substructures of this dodecacyclic intermediate provided a unified approach to (–)-voacinol and (–)-voacandimine C, while direct reduction of the same intermediate afforded the structurally related (–)-methylenebisdeoxoapodine.