Synthesis, Biological Evaluation of Fluorescent 23-Hydroxybetulinic Acid Probes, and Their Cellular Localization Studies.

23-Hydroxybetulinic acid (23-HBA) is a complex lupane triterpenoid, which has attracted increasing attention as an anticancer agent. However, its detailed mechanism of anticancer action remains elusive so far. To reveal its anticancer mode of action, a series of fluorescent 23-HBA derivatives conjugated with coumarin dyes were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their antiproliferative activities.

First total synthesis of antihypertensive natural products S-(+)-XJP and R-(-)-XJP.

The first asymmetric total synthesis of antihypertensive natural products S-(+)-XJP and R-(-)-XJP has been achieved in 8 steps starting from commercially available 6-bromo-2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde. Key steps included intramolecular Heck reaction and oxidative ozonolysis reaction with the retention of stereochemistry. A latent functionality strategy was implemented to circumvent the racemization in this endeavor.