A CASCADE OF NATURAL PRODUCTS

Abstract

BY COMBINING small-molecule organic catalysis and “cascade reactions”—domino reactions performed in a single shot—researchers have achieved “collective total synthesis,” the production of several complex synthetic targets from a common molecular branch point ( Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature10232 ). Chemistry professor David W. C. MacMillan and coworkers at Princeton University devised the approach, which could ease the large-scale production of natural products and natural-product-like compounds for drug discovery and other applications. Synthesizing complex organic molecules is traditionally a one-at-a-time affair, with obstacles progressively overcome to reach single target structures, often created in only modest yields. Collective total synthesis uses small-molecule organocatalysts and cascade reactions to surpass the time and yield limitations of conventional synthesis. The Princeton team used collective total synthesis to produce the neurotoxin strychnine and five other compounds in three families of a...