Total synthesis of munchiwarin, a triprenylated chalcone from Crotalaria medicagenia

Abstract

An efficient method is developed for the synthesis of the modified triprenylated chalcone, munchiwarin (1), isolated from the roots of Crotalaria medicagenia. The synthesis of 1 utilizes a Claisen-Schmidt condensation between 2,4-dihydroxy-3,5-C-diprenyl acetophenone and 4-methoxy benzaldehyde in the presence of Ba(OH)2 to yield the unusual chalcone 5 that contains a nine-membered ether ring. Further prenylation of 5 with 1-bromo-3-methylbut-2-ene and its subsequent demethylation with BBr3 gave munchiwarin (1).