An easy route to synthetic analogues of radicamine B, codonopsine and codonopsinine from D-mannitol.

A general strategy for the synthesis of analogues of radicamine B has been carried out from D-mannitol. This method has been further extended to the synthesis of analogues of codonopsine and codonopsinine using appropriate Grignard reagents. The hence obtained molecules have been tested against various commercially available glycosidases and found to act as moderate to good inhibitors.