Synthesis of Vlasouliolides: A Pathway toward Guaiane-Eudesmane C17/C15 Dimers by Photochemical and Michael Additions.

Vladimiria souliei is a plant found in China used in traditional medicine. Recent isolation studies have led to the discovery of vlasouliolides, which are natural sesquiterpene dimers. However, the yields obtained from isolation have proven to be really low (<0.01%), greatly hindering the study of these molecules. In this work, we propose a simple synthetic route to obtain different vlasouliolides in good yields from dehydrocostuslactone and costunolide, which will lead to further bioactivity studies at a higher scale.