Fortschritte der Chemie organischer Naturstoffe / Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products (Fortschritte der Chemie organischer ... Chemistry of Organic Natural Products, 60)

The volumes of this classic series, now referred to simply as " Zechmeister " after its founder, L. Zechmeister, have appeared under the Springer Imprint ever since the series' inauguration in 1938. The volumes contain contributions on various topics related to the origin, distribution, chemistry, synthesis, biochemistry, function or use of various classes of naturally occurring substances ranging from small molecules to biopolymers. The structure of eunicillin (89), a carbobicyclic diterpenoid isolated from the Mediterranean gorgonian Eunicella stricta, was reported in 1968 (1). At that time chlorine-containing diterpenoids had been dis­ covered in the gorgonian Briareum asbestinum (2, 3), but it was not until 1977 that the structure of the first briaran, briarein A (211), was resolved by X-ray analysis (4). The first trinervitane diterpenoid (26), which was isolated from Trinervitermes termites, was reported in 1976 (5). OAc OAc ACO'···· OH 0 89 211 26 The discovery of these compounds marked the appearance of a large and growing group of diterpenoids which are commonly viewed as being formed from cembrane precursors by secondary carbon-carbon bond closures. It should be emphasized, however, that in the absence of biosynthetic evidence the question of which groups of diterpenoids that should be classified as cyclized cembranoids remains ambiguous. In the present article we have included five tobacco diterpenoids (1-5) which. possess prerequisite structural features and co occur with appropriate cembrane precursors in tobacco. Although structurally reminiscent of cyclized cembranoids, verticillanes, taxanes and cleomeolide are not dealt with, since these diterpenoids of plant origin are not believed to arise via preformed cembranoids (6-11) More than ten years have elapsed since the publication of a compre­ hensive review on the quassinoids, the bitter principles of the Simaroubaceae family (80). Interest in these terpenoids has increased enormously in recent years due in part to the finding of the American National Cancer Institute in the early 1970s that these compounds display marked antileukemic activity. Furthermore, a wide spectrum of other biological properties for the quassinoids has been discovered and studies on chemical modifications of inactive members to yield biologically active ones were undertaken. New structures have been established also and numerous synthetic approaches have been developed which include the total synthesis of the parent compound, quassin (p. 250) and also that of castelanolide (p. 253). It is intended that this present chapter will be an extension of my first review in this series and will contain references up to September 1984. A short article on some aspects of this subject was published recently (81). II. Quassinoid General Features In reviewing the essential features of the quassinoids, the new structural types discovered during the last decade will be emphasised. The quassinoids can be divided into distinct groups according to their basic skeletons. The five skeletons observed are presented on Chart 1 Front Matter....Pages I-VII Cyclized Cembranoids of Natural Occurrence....Pages 1-141 Chemical Synthesis of Heparin Fragments and Analogues....Pages 143-210 Back Matter....Pages 211-243