Phthalide Anions in Organic Synthesis. A Direct Total Synthesis of Furomollugin

Abstract

Furomollugin was synthesized in three steps from commercially available starting materials using phthalide annulation chemistry.

A tribute to Prof. George A. Kraus

“…An efficient total synthesis of paracaseolide A 8 , a tetracyclic cell cycle progression regulator, was featured in a special guest editorial in Organic Letters. Other recent synthetic targets include uliginosins A and B 9 , a two-step synthesis of arcyiacyanin A 1 , an efficient total synthesis of calamenenes via a strategy that employed allylic strain to enforce stereochemistry 10 , the novel indole HKI0231B 11 , the synthesis of carbazole esters from methyl coumalate and 3-chloroindoles 1 , and the synthesis of furomollugin 7 , a natural antibacterial.…”

“…Biobased chemistry from coumalic acid [3][4][5][6][7] Dr. Kraus and co-workers reported a scalable and inexpensive route to coumalic acid and its esters from malic acid. They used methyl coumalate (shown below) as a platform to generate commodity and specialty chemicals that were 100% bio-based.…”