Kopsihainanine A (Figure 1) is an indole alkaloid that was isolated from the leaves and stems of a Chinese medicinal plant, Kopsia hainanensis, together with a biogenetically related compound, kopsihainanine B, by Gao and co-workers in 2011. Due to its biological profile and intriguing structure, kopsihainanine A represents an attractive target for the synthetic community.

Researchers at Lanzhou University and Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), have achieved the first total synthesis of (±)-kopsihainanine A (1) in ten steps with a 12% overall yield. The synthesis started from an inexpensive and commercially available material, and all of the reaction conditions were practically convenient. The developed synthetic strategy may also be suitable for the total synthesis of aspidospermidine and its analogues.

The work has received support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, National Natural Science Foundation of China and Program 111.

The findings have been published in Chem. Eur. J.(Chem. Eur. J.2012, 18, 6729 – 6732).

Total synthesis of ()-kopsihainanine A.