Biomimetic syntheses of rubialatins A, B and related congeners

The first total syntheses of rubialatins A and B, two newly discovered naphthohydroquinone dimers, were achieved with high efficiency and elegancy through rationally designed biomimetic approaches. The tandem ring contraction/Michael addition/aldol reaction followed by oxidation enabled the rapid access of prerubialatin from readily available precursors, which then diverted into rubialatins A and B via epoxidation and photoinduced skeletal rearrangement, respectively. Moreover, several new rubialatin congeners were also obtained along the synthetic tour, some of which were proved to be authentic natural products.