“…[2] Recent efforts by Hussein and co-workers aimed at identifying novel diterpenoidsa sp otential medicinal leads resultedi nt he isolation of two new compounds with moderate antiplasmodial activities from the extract of leaves of C. Steenkampianus,w hich were named( + +)-steenkrotins Aa nd B (1 and 2,r espectively,Figure1). [3] The relative stereochemistry of (+ +)-steenkrotin A( 1)w as unambiguouslye stablished by X-ray diffraction analysis, revealing an intricate [3,5,5,6,7] structure containing at etracyclic carbon framework and as terically congested hydroxyl-tetrahydrofuran subunit. The highlyo xygenated (+ +)-steenkrotin B( 2)f eatures an unusual [5,6,6,7] tetracyclic skeleton containing an endoperoxide moiety.B oth molecules bear eight stereogenic centers, six of which are contiguous,including one all-carbon quaternary center.I nterestingly,e ven before its isolation,t he [3,5,6,7] tetracyclic structure of steenkrotin Aw as envisioned by Cha and co-workerst ob ef ormed throughapinacol-type rearrangement from an epoxy alcohol containing the tigliane skeleton.…”