Resiniferatoxin Wender

Resiniferatoxin (RTX) is a daphnane diterpenoid contained in the irritant latex of some succulent African Euphorbias. Its total synthesis has been described as a 40 step asymmetric synthesis (Wender et al., 1997 see below), but for clinical use RTX isolated from Euphorbia resinifera. 

At this juncture, however, any further retrosynthetic simplifications are far from defined by synthetic necessity. As such, the Wender group s most critical insight regarding the resiniferatoxin... 

Scheme 2. Wender s retrosynthetic analysis of resiniferatoxin (1) initial stages.

---