The acid-mediated osmium-catalysed oxidative cyclisation of 1,2-diols bearing a pendent alkene has been shown to be a powerful method for the formation of cis-2,5-disubstituted tetrahydrofurans. This thesis describes the development of this methodology to broaden the scope of the general reaction, followed by applying the oxidative cyclisation to the synthesis of tetrahydrofuran containing natural products. Introduction: This section reports a range of ractions that osmium oxo-species will facilitate, namely the formation of carbon-oxygen and carbon-nitrogen bonds in a selective manner. In addition to this a variety of similar metal-mediated oxidative cyclisations are discussed. Results and Discussion: The process for optimising the oxidative cyclisation is documented, along with examples which directly compare newly developed methodology with existing methodology. The incorporation of a catalytic amount of a Lewis acid is shown to be more effective than using an excess of a Brønsted acid, with osmium catalyst loading being reduced to 0.2 mol%. Subsequently, this methodology is shown to facilitate the successful oxidative cyclisation of vinyl silanes to form silyl-substituted tetrahydrofurans, along with methodology to “unmask” the silane, as a potential route to lactols. Finally, the application of this methodology to synthesis is demonstrated, with the successful synthesis of neodysiherbaine A being achieved in 7 steps and the C21-30 fragment of pectenotoxin-4 in 12 steps.

The thesis titled “Stereoselective synthesis of bio-active styryllactones” comprises an introduction about styryllactones and three sections delineating the results and discussion about the synthesis of styryllactones and experimental section. Trees of the genus Goniothalamus of the plant family Annonaceae in South East Asia has been known for a long time for their proven use in folk medicine. The research group of McLaughlin isolated and characterized a series of styryllactones, possessing significant to marginal cytotoxic activity against human tumor cell lines. The structures and relative configurations of these compounds were determined either by X-ray crystallography or by extensive NMR spectral analysis. Classification of these styryllactones is based on the structural characteristics of the six different skeletons as shown in Figure 1. It was proposed by Shing et al. that the bio-synthesis of styryllactones 1-7 occur via the shikimic acid pathway. This proceeds through the formation of cinnamic acid from phenylalanine, followed by the incorporation of two acetate–malonate units activated as co-enzyme A, generating the styryl-pyrone, goniothalamin 9 a key styryllactone, which on further hydroxylation/oxidation leads to the formation of other styryllactones Section 1: Stereoselective synthesis of styryllactones containing furanofurone, pyrano-pyrone and styryl-pyrone structural units. In this section of the thesis, stereoselective total synthesis of furano-furone, pyrano-pyrone and styryl-pyrone type styryllactones (+)-7-epi-goniofufurone 1, (+)-goniofufurone 2, (+)goniopypyrone 3, (+)-goniotriol 4, (+)-9-deoxygoniopypyrone 5 and (+)-goniodiol 6 is discussed. It is anticipated that the masked tetrol 13, comprising an alkene tether and four contiguous hydroxy groups installed with definite configuration would serve as the intermediate for the synthesis of styryllactones 1-6. It is relied on exploiting the hydroxy directed lactonization via the oxidation of alkene in 13, and subsequent elaboration to styryllactones 1-6. Bis-dimethylamide 10, derived from D-(−)-tartaric acid was identified as the suitable precursor for the synthesis of 13. Synthesis of masked tetrol 13 is accomplished from 10 involving a combination of selective Grignard additions and a stereoselective reduction (Scheme 2). Section 2: Stereoselective synthesis of styryllactones containing tetrahydrofuran and furano-pyrone structural units This section deals with stereoselective synthesis of natural antitumor tetrahydrofuran containing natural product (+)-goniothalesdiol 8. Key features of the synthesis include a FeCl3 mediated formation of THF 15 with very high selectivity (Scheme 3). THF 15 is further elaborated into the furano-pyrone type styryllactones (+)-altholactone 7 and (−)-etharvensin 16 in good yields (Scheme 3). Section 3: Stereoselective total synthesis of (+)-cardiobutanolide Recently, a new styryllactone cardiobutanolide 20 was isolated from the stem bark of Goniothalamus cardiopetalus, together with four known styryllactones by Hisham et al. Stereoselective total synthesis of this natural product from D-(−)-tartaric acid is described in this section. Key features of the synthesis include the elaboration of the γ-hydroxy butyramide 17 obtained from the bis-dimethylamide 10, involving a combination of the addition of 1,3-dithian-2-yllithium and stereoselective reduction (Scheme 4). (For structural formula pl see the pdf file)