Dibefurin

Pyrogallols (1,2,3-trihydroxybenzenes) are abundant in Nature, easily oxidized, and are central precursors to important natural products. The rich chemistry of their oxidized derivatives, the hydroxy-o-quinones, has been studied for over a century and still attracts the interest of the scientific community. Only in the last ten years have critical insights of pyrogallol chemistry from the mid-twentieth century been applied to modern natural product synthesis. Historical studies of pyrogallol chemistry, including [5+2], [4+2], and formal [5+5] cycloadditions are discussed here and reactivity guidelines established. The application and remarkable selectivity of these cycloadditions is then showcased in the recent syntheses of several fungal natural products, including dibefurin, epicolactone, the merocytochalasans, and preuisolactone A. The authors hope that this contribution will spark further interest in the fascinating chemistry of pyrogallols and natural products derived from them.

Dibefurin is a Ci -symmetric natural product that acts as an inhibitor of calcineurin phosphatase. A six-step synthesis of this compound is reported, which features an oxidative dimerization of the aromatic polyketide epicoccine as the key step. Dibefurin is proposed to be related to epicolactone, a complex yet racemic fungal metabolite that has recently been discovered. Attempts to access epicolactone from epicoccine and epicoccone B resulted in an unusual dimer that is formed through a hetero-Diels-Alder reaction of a para-quinone methide with an ortho-quinone.

Four new metabolites, asperchalasine I (1), dibefurin B (2) and two epicoccine derivatives (3 and 4), together with seven known compounds (5-11) were isolated from a mangrove fungus Mycosphaerella sp. SYSU-DZG01. The structures of compounds 1-4 were established from extensive spectroscopic data and HRESIMS analysis. The absolute configuration of 1 was deduced by comparison of ECD data with that of a known structure. The stereostructures of 2-4 were further confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Compounds 1, 8 and 9 exhibited significant α-glucosidase inhibitory activity with IC50 values of 17.1, 26.7 and 15.7 μM, respectively. Compounds 1, 4, 6 and 8 showed antioxidant activity by scavenging DPPH· with EC50 values ranging from 16.3 to 85.8 μM.