β-Elemene derivatives produced from SeO2-mediated oxidation reaction

We report herein the first access of ß-elemene derivatives through the SeO2-mediated oxidation reaction. Several new compounds were isolated through such one-step reaction, and their structures were elucidated using various 2D-NMR techniques. This method provides easy access to multiple oxidative ß-elemene derivatives in one single step, and represents the first cyclohexyl ring modifications of ß-elemene. It’s expected to open up the opportunity for future derivatization on cyclohexyl ring of ß-elemene. The new compounds obtained above showed better anti-proliferation activities on several cancer cell lines than ß-elemene itself.