Marine natural products of the Atlantic zone. Part VI. Base-catalysed rearrangement of taondiol
Abstract
The base-catalysed isomerisation of taondiol (1; R1= R2= H), an aromatic terpenoid containing the 1H-naphtho[2,1-a]xanthen skeleton recently isolated from the marine alga Taonia atomaria(Dyctiotaceae), into its C-6a methyl epimer (2) has been studied. A free-radical mechanism is proposed for the reaction. Base-catalysed methyl inversion at C-6a was also carried out on 2-deoxy-9,11-dimethyltaondiol (21; R = H), prepared by condensation of (13R)-labda-8(20),14-dien-13-ol (18) with trimethylhydroquinone (19) and subsequent cyclisation.