Furan and tetrahydrofuran heterocycles are part of many natural products, like the Galerucella pheromone, furano epothilones, bipinnatin, and amphidinolides. This paper describes a short and efficient synthetic approach to furan-containing macrolactones in 4 steps, including as key steps a Sonogashira reaction and an olefin metathesis. The resulting compounds were tested at the National Cancer Institute for their cytotoxicity, but did not exhibit significant cytotoxicity in the human tumour cell line screen.

Furan and tetrahydrofuran heterocycles are part of many natural products, like the Galerucella pheromone, furano epothilones, bipinnatin, and amphidinolides. This paper describes a short and efficient synthetic approach to furan-containing macrolactones in 4 steps, including as key steps a Sonogashira reaction and an olefin metathesis. The resulting compounds were tested at the National Cancer Institute for their cytotoxicity, but did not exhibit significant cytotoxicity in the human tumour cell line screen.