Synthesis of (±)-Aspidospermidine

Significance

Interest in the synthesis of aspido­spermidine stems from its structural relationship to other important biologically active alkaloids such as vindoline, the lower half of the antitumoral bis-indole alkaloid vinblastine. Sharp and Zard exploited a radical cyclization cascade to efficiently access the core of aspidospermidine in diastereoselective fashion (F → I).