Synthesis of models of metabolites:: Oxidation of variously substituted chromenes including acronycine, by a porphyrin catalytic system

The influence of chemical neighbouring on oxidation of substituted 2,2-dimethylchromenes derivatives 58 by a biomimetic catalytic system was first studied. It was then applied to acronycine an anti-cancer drug in order to obtain in one single step oxidized products resulting from the reactivity of the 1,2-double bond in the pyranic D-ring. These 2,2-dimethylchromenes constitute the structural moiety responsible for the activity of acronycine. This oxidation showed the sensitivity of the ethylenic bond, leading to the formation of the corresponding epoxides, diols and/or ketoalcohol. In the case of 5-dimethylamino-2,2-dimethylchromene 8, the double bond was not sensitive to oxidation, but the N-methyl groups reacted to lead to the formamide derivative 16 and an imino-alcohol 17. This methodology applied to acronycine molecule 1, allowed to obtain in one step, two oxidized compounds, a trans-diol 3 and a ketoalcohol 4 under preparative conditions.