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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Synthesis of sesquiterpene-tropolones

Abstract

dc:description

A modular synthetic platform for the synthesis of the multi-bioactive sesquiterpene-tropolone natural products has been developed in an effort to provide general synthetic access to this class of compounds and related structures. In this work, the convergence of the sesquiterpene and tropolone fragments is enabled by a hetero-Diels–Alder reaction between a tropolone ortho-quinone methide and derivatives of α–humulene. Concise and scalable syntheses of both fragments are described, as well as alternative approaches to key intermediates. During the development of the tropolone synthesis, an unprecedented photochemical fragmentation was discovered. Two natural products, epolone B and deoxypycnidione have been synthesized employing this strategy, as well as two diastereomers of pycnidione. In these studies, a correction to the originally reported structure of epolone B is suggested based upon X-ray crystallographic data. The synthetic compounds were found to be cytotoxic to A459 and HCT116 cell lines. Current efforts are focused on synthesizing pycnidione in its correct relative stereochemical configuration. Future directions include application of these fragments in hetero-Diels–Alder reactions to synthesize related sesquiterpene-tropolones, other tropolone containing natural products, and bistropolone congeners for biological evaluation.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph.D.
Level thesis:degree_level
Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Chemistry
Grantor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Year dc:date
2019

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Bemis, Christopher Yngwie
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Sarlah, David
  • Denmark, Scott E.
  • Hergenrother, Paul J.
  • Silverman, Scott K.

Subjects

dc:subject × 9

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Copyright 2019 Christopher Bemis
Language dc:language
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104826
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/104826

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Base URL
www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Bemis, Christopher Yngwie. Synthesis of sesquiterpene-tropolones. Dissertation thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104826