Keywords: Spiro compounds / Carbohydrates / Lactones / Dithiins Perbenzylated 1,7-dioxaspiro [5,5]undec-4-ene derivatives of sugars are obtained in three steps, starting from fully protected glycono-1,5-lactones. The procedure is based on the attack of a lithiated dithiinyl reagent (6) on the starting δ-glyconolactone. The C-glycosidation leads to the sole thermodynamically more stable α-hemiacetal derivative, the spi-

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a biologically active compound present in the plants of the Cannabis family, used as anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety, and more recently, anticancer drug. In this work, its use as a new self-assembly inducer in the formation of nanoparticles is validated. The target conjugates are characterized by the presence of different anticancer drugs (namely N-desacetyl thiocolchicine, podophyllotoxin, and paclitaxel) connected to CBD through a linker able to improve drug release. These nanoparticles are formed via solvent displacement method, resulting in monodisperse and stable structures having hydrodynamic diameters ranging from 160 to 400 nm. Their biological activity is evaluated on three human tumor cell lines (MSTO-211H, HT-29, and HepG2), obtaining GI50 values in the low micromolar range. Further biological assays were carried out on MSTO-211H cells for the most effective NP 8B, confirming the involvement of paclitaxel in cytotoxicity and cell death mechanism

Cannabidiol‐C4 1 (CBD‐C4, cannabidibutol) is a natural product that is present in the extracts of Cannabis. Its isolation has not been reported to date. The aim of the proposed synthesis is to secure the availability of the pure compound, its spectroscopic characterization, and to confirm its presence in low amounts in the extracts. The enantioselective total synthesis is based on a) the use 3,5‐dimetoxybenzaldehyde as starting material, b) Corey‐Bakshi‐Shibata reduction, c) Claisen‐Ireland rearrangement, d) ring‐closing metathesis, and e) completely not‐trivial demethylation induced by sodium ethanethiolate.

The preparation of 7R-HMR (allo-hydroxymatairesinol) is reported by: (a) NaBH4 kinetic reduction of 7R/7S diastereomeric mixture; and (b) epimerization of the C7 hydroxyl group by Mitsunobu reaction and subsequent ester hydrolysis. The availability of highly pure target compound (7R-HMR) made it possible to confirm the structure of the target compound and to complete the full spectroscopic characterization.