Total Syntheses of Aflatoxins

Thus, the total syntheses of the racemic aflatoxins B, (/), B2 (5) [since this can be prepared by the controlled catalytic hydrogenation of aflatoxin B, (l)51,63)], and B2a (11) were accomplished in a rather elegant carbon rearrangement fashion. 

In 1985, O Malley et al. published the total syntheses of rac-averufin (103) and rac-nidurufin (104) (65). These are both early precursors of the aflatoxins in their biosynthesis. Nidurufin (104) is the direct successor of averufin (103) and the direct precursor of versiconal hemiacetal acetate (12, see Scheme 2.1). Nidurufin (104) and averufin (103) are accessible by the same synthesis route only the two last steps differ firom each other (see Scheme 2.17). The first reaction was a double Diels-Alder reaction with dichloro-p-benzoquinone (97) and two equivalents of diene 98. Then, three of the four alcohol functions were selectively MOM-protected (—> 99). The remaining alcohol was converted into the allyl ether and then subjected to a reductive Claisen rearrangement, followed by MOM-protection of the redundant alcohol ( 100). By addition/elimination of PhSeCl, 101 was formed. Deprotonation of t-butyl 3-oxobutanoate, followed by reaction with 101 yielded the pivotal intermediate 102. This could be converted into rac-averufin (103) by deprotection of the alcohols and decarboxylation at the side chain. The last step was a p-TsOH-catalyzed cyclization to give 103. By treating 102 with /m-CPBA, the double bond is epoxidized. rac-Nidurufin (104) was then formed by cyclization of this epoxide under acidic conditions. 

The key intermediate in the total synthesis of furaquinocin was obtained in good yield by a reductive Heck reaction that proceeded with a sterically hindered base pentamethylpiperidine (PMP) <02JA11616>. A new hypothesis for the major skeletal rearrangement (anthraquinone —> xanthone —> coumarin) that occurs in the complex biosynthesis of aflatoxin Bi was proposed. To test this hypothesis, an intermediate 11-hydroxy-O-methylstergmatocystin (HOMST) was synthesized as shown below. The key transformation in this synthesis involved the treatment of an ester-aldehyde with Pr3SiOTf, which smoothly produced a mixed acetal. Direct reduction with DIBAL-H led to the aldehyde. The desired product was eventually obtained via several steps as shown <02JA5294>. 

There are different syntheses for unsubstituted model systems of aflatoxin precursors. However, these cannot be used for total synthesis (Fig. 2.5). Compound 72 has been synthesized by Pawlowski et al. in four steps (49). Compound 73 was obtained in four steps by Snider et al. via a ketene-[2 + 2]-cycloadditicai and 2iBaeyer-Villiger oxidation (50). Mittra et al. synthesized 74 in the same way as Snider et al. (51). 

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