Efficient synthesis of esermethole and its analogues.

In this work, a general and flexible synthetic route towards the synthesis of pyrroloindoline alkaloids was developed. This new strategy features with a palladium mediated sequential arylation-allylation of o-bromoanilides and leads to the construction of oxindoles bearing a full carbon quaternary center. The cheap triphenylphosphine was proved to be a highly effective ligand for this one pot transformation. On the basis of this new method, esermethole and its analogues were synthesized.