Bioinspired Direct Access to Benzofuroindolines by Oxidative [3 + 2] Annulation of Phenols and Indoles

The straightforward entry to benzofuroindoline containing natural product-like scaffolds has been achieved by a challenging [3 + 2] oxidative coupling between phenols and indoles. The reaction proceeds by NIS-oxidation of the indole followed by the trapping of the resulting electrophilic intermediate by phenol.