Concise synthesis of didebromohamacanthin A and demethylaplysinopsine: addition of ethylenediamine and guanidine derivatives to the pyrrole-amino acid diketopiperazines in oxidative conditions.

Oxidative nucleophilic addition of ethylenediamine and guanidine derivatives to pyrrole-amino acid diketopiperazines was shown to provide substituted 5,6-dihydro-2(1H)-piperazinones, quinoxalinones, and 2-aminoimidazolones. On the basis of this methodology, a concise approach to natural products didebromohamacanthin A and demethylaplysinopsine has been demonstrated.

Debromodispacamides B and D: isolation from the marine sponge Agelas mauritiana and stereoselective synthesis using a biomimetic proline route.

New debromopyrrole-2-aminoimidazolones, debromodispacamide B (1) and debromodispacamide D (2) were isolated from the sponge Agelas mauritiana, collected in the Solomon Islands. A biomimetic one-step reaction from pseudopeptides 5 and 13 in presence of air oxygen and guanidine gave the chiral form of the natural product stereoselectively.