Steroid B-ring lactones: a reinvestigation

Synthesis of hupehenols A, B, and E from protopanaxadiol

A unified semisynthesis approach from protopanaxadiol to hupehenols A, B, and E was described. The synthesis provided the primary SAR and the possibility of further medicinal development of hupehenols.

Synthesis and antiproliferative activity of some steroidal lactone compounds

Using cholesterol as starting material, some steroidal lactone compounds with the structures of 3-substituted-6-oxo-7-oxa-B-homo-cholestane or 3-substituted-7-oxo-6-oxa-B-homo-cholestane were synthesized by oxidation, reduction, Baeyer-Villiger reaction and condensation reaction. The cytotoxicity of these compounds against MGC 7901 (human gastric carcinoma), HeLa (human cervical carcinoma) and SMMC 7404 (human liver carcinoma) cells was investigated. Our results showed that the synthesized compounds displayed a distinct cytotoxicity against these cancer cells. In particular, compounds 8 and 9 have similar cytotoxic capability as cisplatin does. The information obtained from the studies may be useful for the design of novel chemotherapeutic drugs.

Synthesis of 12-oxa, 12-aza and 12-thia cholanetriols

An efficient synthesis of 12-hetero steroids was achieved via a Baeyer-Villiger oxidation and a photolysis as the key steps. We set out to describe in this paper the first synthesis of 12-aza steroids. The characteristic (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopic features of the synthesized compounds are reported.