Synthesis of the caramboxinic skeleton via anionic annulation
Caramboxin is a molecule present in the starfruit that causes neurotoxic effects by ingestion mainly in people with pre-existing kidney diseases. In order to confirm the chemical structure, the need for total synthesis of caramboxin allows sufficient quantities for further investigations about toxicity and mechanism of action. Another interesting point is that caramboxin is a quite functionalized molecule, showing a challenge to synthetic chemists. In this work there are two proposals for synthesis of caramboxin; Route A offers cyclic starting materials, and insertion of formyl group into the aromatic ring via Vilsmeier-Haack reaction followed by Lindgren oxidation and acid esterification. Malonate type coupling followed by hydrolysis reaction to obtain an amino acid portion of caramboxin; Route B consists in acyclic starting materials and the use of microwave and solvent-free reactions. The key-step is the ring aromatization and the use of a hydrolysable protected glycine group to obtain the amino acid portion of caramboxin. Although the target molecule was not achieved, caramboxin analogues were obtained. Some synthesized compounds are unpublished and could be applied for biological activity studies in a near future.