Chemical synthesis of funicone analogs

Deoxyfunicone, rapicone and their 5,6-epoxy-derivatives are γ-pyrone compounds with cytostatic and antiproliferative properties. Here we describe a synthesis of these compounds by carbonylative Stille coupling between kojic acid derivatives and functionalized iodo aryl compounds. The main advantages of this patent pending synthetic strategy lie in the simplicity and clean conversion of products, and in the possibility to obtain a high number of analogs by minor changes of the synthetic synthons.