Paraherquamides, brevianamides, and asperparalines: laboratory synthesis and biosynthesis. An interim report.

Studies from our laboratories on the paraherquamide, brevianamide, and asperparaline families of natural products are reviewed. It has been proposed that the unique core ring system that is common to this family of compounds arises by a biological intramolecular Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction. Key biosynthetic studies are described, along with classical synthetic approaches as well as those inspired by Nature for the synthesis of these interesting molecules.