Frederike Weber worked on the synthesis of the naphtopyranone dimer semi-viriditoxin and semi-viriditoxin acid as part of her doctoral thesis and recently published the results of her work in Chemistry Europe. The key intermediate required for the synthesis was obtained by Ghosez-cyclisation or Grubbs-ring-closure-metathesis. The essential step for the synthesis of the semi-viriditoxin scaffold was a domino-Michael-Dieckmann-reaction. Biological tests of the synthesized naphtopyranone dimers against Ramos cells showed a reduction in the cell viability of the lymphoma cells.
The article is available online.