The presence of similar fundamental core structures is not exclusive to chemical compounds extracted from the same natural source. Common or highly resembling structures can be identified throughout various forms of life, such as different (and often distantly related) families of plants, as well as fungi and even bacteria. The cores (building blocks) are identified by our group, designed and further -synthesized, ultimately, to have an access to different classes of natural products and important biologically active compounds, as well as new techniques for the preparation of structurally unique novel molecules.
All targets and transformations are selected on the basis of novel molecular architecture, important biological activity, and the potential for mechanistic studies.
The molecular scaffold that attracted our attention is the 2-(7-Methyloctyl)benzene-1,3-diol that can be frequently observed as scaffold segments of various Cannabinoid compounds of natural origin, and have been firmly established to demonstrate pharmacological activity.
We operate under the assumption that 2-(7-Methyloctyl)benzene-1,3-diol, which can be easily obtained, could serve as an operationally acceptable collective key precursor for the diversity-oriented construction of Cannabinoids. We believe that a wide spectrum of cannabinoids and their structural analogues might be successfully constructed through simple and straightforward cyclizations.