Synthesis of the macrocyclic structure of Furanoheliangolides

Author(s)

Valquiria Aragão

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Ribeirão Preto.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC)
• Defense date: 2007-06-15

Examining board members

Luiz Alberto Beraldo de Moraes; Roberto Gomes de Souza Berlinck; Carlos Roque Duarte Correia; Alberto Federman Neto; Luiz Fernando da Silva Junior

• Advisor: Mauricio Gomes Constantino

Abstract

Furanoheliangolides are bioactive natural products containing a peculiar macrocyclic structure. The synthesis of these compounds has been a matter of considerable interest to several researchers. In the last few years, our research group has dedicated some efforts to develop synthetic methods for the preparation of the core structure of the furanoheliangolides, particularly goyazensolide. The core structure of this natural product corresponds to the 7- oxabicyclo[6.2.1]undecane system. This natural product has several biological activities, such as schistosomicidal, cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory. Our methodology uses, as a key step, the Diels-Alder reaction. After the preparation of the polycyclic system, the cleavage of the internal bond of the rings should furnish the desired macrocycle. In this work, three synthetic routes to the preparation of the core structure of the furanoheliangolides were studied. In the first route, the Diels-Alder reaction between 2-methylfuran and methyl 3-bromopropiolate, occurred with unusually high regioselectivity The cyclization reaction for the formation of the polycyclic system was investigated with three different compounds. However, none of these reactions furnished the desired product, but resulted instead in complex mixtures of products. These results showed the difficulty to perform cyclization reactions in compounds of this type. Other substrates could have been used, but considering these discouraging initial results, we preferred to start the studies of a new synthetic route. In the second route we were still attempting to introduce a three-carbon group to form the new six-membered ring; the main modification was that we would now start from the other side of the molecule. The aldehyde could be obtained in good yield, but the aldol reaction product of this aldehyde with the ketone is very unstable. As we have found in experiments with a simple ketal, the hydrolysis of ketals of this type require rather strong acidic treatment. Therefore, the aldol product would not withstand these conditions, so we abandoned these studies. In the third synthetic route, the methodology consisted of building the polycyclic system through two Diels-Alder reactions followed by an ozonolysis reaction to cleave the central double bond. The stereochemistry of the addut obtained in the second Diels-Alder reaction was confirmed by NMR studies. The ozonolysis of this product produced the desired core of the furanoheliangolides. As the imide group of this macrocycle is very resistant to hydrolysis and other reactions, we have also developed a modification that produces a more treatable product. The diene used in this second Diels-Alder reaction does not give Diels-Alder adduct with maleic anhydride, but it reacts well with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate to give correspondent addut. The two double bonds of this addut are sufficiently different from each other to permit the selective ozonolysis of the more nucleophilic central bond. In this last synthetic route, two macrocycles were prepared in seven steps, involving two Diels-Alder reactions, with overall yields of 36.3% and 42.1%, respectively. (AU)