It All Began with an Error: The Nomofungin/Communesin Story

Peter Siengalewicz, Tanja Gaich *, Johann Mulzer, Prof. *

Angewandte Chemie, International Edition (2008), 47(43), 8170-8176.

The communesin/nomofungin/perophoramidine story is an impressive example of how biogenetic considerations can lead to the correction of structural misassignments and inspire synthetic chemists with new, fruitful ideas. Intensive studies by a number of research groups culminated in the total synthesis of perophoramidine by the Funk research group in 2004. In 2007, Qin and co-workers completed the first total synthesis of a communesin.