Synthesis of all eight stereoisomers of the germination stimulant sorgolactone

The naturally occurring sesquiterpene sorgolactone (2) belongs to the class of "strigolactones", which are highly potent germination stimulants for seeds of the parasitic weeds Striga and Orobanche. The aim of the present work was to synthesize all eight stereoisomers of sorgolactone and to evaluate their activities in the stimulation of germination of S. hermontica and O. crenata. Two racemic diastereomers of the ABC part of sorgolactone, rac.10a and rac.10b respectively, were prepared and coupled with homochiral latent D-ring synthons 12 and ent.12. In this manner, four mixtures of two separable (protected) sorgolactone diastereomers were obtained. Deprotection gave all eight target compounds as single isomers. Bioassays revealed that only those isomers possessing the same stereochemistry as natural sorgolactone at two adjacent chiral centers exhibit high biological activities.