Rapid Access to Licochalcone Type Derivatives in the Undergraduate Laboratory Setting (Part II)

Abstract

Retrochalcones are a ubiquitous class of natural compounds long investigated as biologically and medically active molecules.  However, a viable synthetic route with reasonable reaction times made it difficult to investigate in an undergraduate laboratory setting. Our investigation of the Claisen rearrangement, a temperature promoted [3, 3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of phenyl allyl ethers into ortho-substituted phenols provided a pathway into the synthesis of several retrochalcones.