Divergent total synthesis of the natural antimalarial marinoquinolines A, B, C, E and unnatural analogues

A new synthetic route to marinoquinolines was developed, allowing the synthesis of several structurally related compounds from a common key intermediate. Four natural marinoquinolines (A, B, C and E) and nine unnatural new analogues were prepared by this strategy, which features a Heck–Matsuda reaction in pure water and the Pictet–Spengler reaction as key steps.