Total synthesis of anisomycin

Abstract

Two synthetic approaches to anisomycin had been studied. One approach used 2R 3R tartaric acid as starting material and was successfully converted to the hydrochlorides of (+)-anisomycin (22) in an overall yield of about 5% and (−)-anisomycin (1) in about 1% yield. Liberation of the free bases gave (+)-anisomycin and (−)-anisomycin. The other approach started with α-anisyl pyrrole and was converted to (±)-deacetyl anisomycin 2. The conversion of 2 to anisomycin was done by treating natural deacetyl anisomycin with benzyl bromide to give 9. Conversion of 8 and 9 to (+)-anisomycin and (−)-anisomycin was done by selective acetylation with acetic anhydride and debenzylation under hydrogenation condition.