Enzymatic synthesis of a dihydrobenzofuran neolignan by oxidative coupling

The oxidative dimerization of ferulic acid has been carried out using horse-radish peroxidase as catalyst to give a dihydrobenzofuran neolignan (1), the structure of which was elucidated as (2SR,3RS)-2,3-dihydro-2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-3-n-buto xycarbonyl-5-(2E-carboxyethenyl)-7-methoxybenzofuran by spectroscopic analyses. This compound showed more potent cytotoxicity against several tumor cell lines than the starting material.