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A Total Synthesis of (+)-Mitragynine
Dnyaneshwar A Gorve1, Gour H Mandal1, K P Chandra Shekar2
1Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66047, United States.
The Journal of Organic Chemistry
|April 19, 2026
Abstract:
Here, we disclose a concise total synthesis of (+)-mitragynine, which is the enantiomer of one of the analgesic components of the Mitragyna speciosa (kratom) plant. The synthesis proceeds in a linear sequence of seven steps from commercial starting materials and constitutes the shortest preparation of (+)-mitragynine to date. An interesting oxidative cyclization contributes to the convergency of the synthesis.

