Syntheses of (-)-oleocanthal, a natural NSAID found in extra virgin olive oil, the (-)-deacetoxy-oleuropein aglycone, and related analogues

Phenolic compounds extracted from extra virgin olive oil have attracted considerable recent attention. One of the components, (-)-oleocanthal (1), an inhibitor of the COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes, possesses similar potency as the NSAID ibuprofen. In this, a full account, we disclose the first- and now second-generation syntheses of both enantiomers of the oleocanthals, as well as the first synthesis of the closely related (-)-deacetoxy-oleuropein aglycone and a series of related analogues for structure activity studies. To demonstrate the utility of the second-generation synthesis, multigram quantities of (-)-oleocanthal were prepared in 10 steps (14% overall yield) from commercially available D-lyxose.