Oxidative dearomatization of naphthols –a novel synthesis of sulphoxide templates

Abstract

Development of facile routes to accomplish successful multistep organic synthesis, leading to the development of bioactive natural products is one of the most challenging fields in chemistry in academic and industry throughout the world. Our interest lies in Oxidative Dearomatization of unprotected systems like phenol, cresols, coumarins, napthols etc. using hyper-valent Iodine catalysts which can lead to versatile frameworks for active organic practioners. Intial approaches towards two Bioactive Natural Products namely Pseudoguaianolide (1) and Penostatin A (2) lead us to explore newer methodologies for scalable Oxidative Dearomatization. In an event of experiments leading to this methodology, a novel transformation leading to formation of sulphoxide templates have been brought under the preview of this project and elaborated in the following pages.