A concise synthesis route to access bioactive natural products-dihydrocurcumins/1,7-diarylheptanoids

Dihydrocurcumin (DHCUR), a natural product and reductive metabolite of curcumin (CUR), is limitedly explored owing to its low bioavailability and limited accessibility due to lack of straightforward synthetic routes and poor yields with known methods. Herein, we report a concise and straightforward route to synthesize DHCUR and its analogs in excellent yields. Dihydroferuloylacetone is condensed with aldehydes to obtain desired DHCURs/1,7-diarylheptanoids in 81–90% yields. The developed protocol facilitates easy access to bioactive natural products, 1,7-diarylheptanoids and DHCUR, for therapeutic study.