Chemoenzymatic formal synthesis of (+)-brazilin.

Herein, the manuscript presents a chemoenzymatic formal synthetic route of (+)-brazilin, a homoisoflavonoid natural product with a chroman skeleton cis-fused with a 2,3-dihydro-1H-indene unit, which is isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine, Caesalpinia sappan L. The key feature of the synthetic strategy includes an enzyme-mediated desymmetrization by employing lipase from Candida antarctica type B (CALB) and a one-pot SN2/hydrolysis reaction.