Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products

This book describes a unique class of secondary metabolites, the mono- and dimeric-naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids. They exclusively occur in lianas of the palaeotropical Ancistrocladaceae and Dioncophyllaceae plant families. Their unprecedented structures include stereogenic centers and rotationally hindered, and therefore stereogenic, axes. Extended recent investigations on six Ancistrocladus species from Asia, as reported in this contribution, shed light on their fascinating phytochemical productivity, with over 100 intriguing natural products. This high chemodiversity arises from a similarly unique biosynthesis from acetate-malonate units, following a novel polyketidic pathway to plant-derived isoquinoline alkaloids. Some of the compounds show most promising anti-parasitic activities. Additionally, strategies for the regio- and stereoselective total synthesis of the alkaloids, including the directed construction of the chiral axis, are also presented.