Total synthesis and biological evaluation of verticipyrone and analogues

[reaction: see text] Total synthesis of verticipyrone, a novel NADH-fumarate reductase inhibitor, has been accomplished by a convergent approach using novel "Reverse Julia olefination" method. During total synthetic studies, we also prepared and evaluated several synthetic verticipyrone analogues, some of which exhibited more potent antiparasitic activity than the natural verticipyrone.