Unified Approach toward Syntheses of Juglomycins and Their Derivatives.

A unified and common intermediate strategy for syntheses of juglomycins and their derivatives is reported. The use of a 1,4-dimethoxynaphthalene derivative as a key intermediate enabled easy access to various juglomycin derivatives. In this study, juglomycins A-D, juglomycin C amide, khatmiamycin and its 4-epimer, and the structure proposed for juglomycin Z were synthesized from this intermediate. The absolute configuration of natural khatmiamycin has been established to be 3R,4R through our synthesis. Unfortunately, the spectroscopic data for synthetic juglomycin Z were not consistent with the data reported for the natural one, strongly suggesting a structural misassignment.

Total Syntheses of Juglorescein and Juglocombins†A and B.

Total syntheses of juglorescein and juglocombins A and B are reported. The highly oxygenated 6/6/5/6/6-fused pentacyclic ring system of these natural products was constructed through a bioinspired dimerization of 1,4-naphthoquinone. Notably, five new stereogenic centers were constructed in a single step by the dimerization reaction. The epoxide intermediate obtained from the dimerization was successfully converted into juglocombins A and B through photoinduced reduction of the epoxide, dehydration, and conversion of the resultant quinone into a hydroquinone derivative. The same epoxide intermediate was also converted into a dicarboxylic acid, which was transformed into juglorescein through intramolecular lactonization, hydrolysis of the resulting lactone, and removal of the protecting groups. Furthermore, the relative and absolute configurations of juglorescein and juglocombins A and B were determined.