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Morita-Baylis-Hillman acetates and α-bromonitroalkenes have been employed in cascade reactions with lawsone and 2-aminonaphthoquinone for the one-pot synthesis of heterocycle fused quinonoid compounds. The reactions reported here utilized the 1,3-binucleophilic potential of hydroxy- and aminonaphthoquinones and the 1,2/1,3-bielectrophilic potential of bromonitroalkenes and Morita-Baylis-Hillman acetates for the synthesis of pyrrole and furan fused naphthoquinones. The synthesized compounds were evaluated against HCT-116 (human colon carcinoma cells), PC3 (human prostate cancer cells), HL-60 (human promyelocytic leukemia cells), SF295 (human glioblastoma cells) and NCI-H460 (human lung cancer cells) and exhibited antitumor activity with IC 50 values as low as < 2 μM. Selected compounds were also evaluated against OVCAR-8 (ovary), MX-1 (breast) and JURKAT (leukemia) cell lines. The cytotoxic potential of the quinones evaluated was also assayed using non-tumor cells, exemplified by peripheral blood mononuclear (PBMC) and L929 cells., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

As a naturally occurring small‐molecule, various optical isomers of chiral pyrrolo[2,1‐a]isoquinoline alkaloid crispine A represent a potential class of chiral molecules in contemporary organic chemistry, and possess diverse biological activities. The range of pharmacological activities include antidepressant, antiplatelet, antileukemic, and anticancer activities. This review provides an overview of the literature on the strategies, employed in the synthesis of crispine A in their racemic and enantiopure forms via Bischler‐Napieralski cyclization, Pictet‐Spengler cyclization, N‐Alkylation/Acylation‐cyclization, Oxidative cyclization, and Asymmetric hydrogenation in the period of 1931–2021. This study accentuates the need for the developing more effective synthesis, and search for involved biological applications for the pyrroloisoquinoline class of natural product. Attention has been drawn towards the use of relatively less documented but easily accessible naturally occurring diastereomeric scaffolds namely, garcinia and hibiscus acids. These lactones obtained from (+)‐ and (−)‐2‐hydroxycitric acids bearing chemically amenable functional groups are investigated as an ideal choice for the enantiopure synthesis of the (−)‐(R)‐ and (+)‐(S)‐Crispine A structural frame work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]