A Practical and Efficient Approach to the Preparation of Bioactive Natural Product Wogonin

A scalable and practical route to wogonin, a bioactive natural product with multiple pharmacological activities which is currently under phase I/II clinical studies, is described. Wogonin was obtained via a four-step process starting from commercially available chrysin and including the Elbs oxidation, benzylation, methylation, and the final debenzylation. The whole procedure gives the target product in a 38% overall yield with >99% purity. Key...