Syntheses of 2, 5-dialkylfuran and tetrahydrofuran carbinols and their cytotoxic activity.

2, 5-Dialkylfuran and tetrahydrofuran compounds as structural elements of Annonaceae acetogenins like Asitrocinwere synthesized starting from furfural by Grignard reactions, lithiation of the furan ring and addition of aliphatic aldehydes. Hydrogenation of the furan rings over Pd-catalyst gave the corresponding tetrahydrofurans. All resulting compounds showed no or rather less antimicrobial activity against grampositive, gram-negative bacteria and fungi compared to tetracycline or clotrimazol but high cytotoxic activity against HL 60 cell line determined in the MTT assay.