Establishment of atropisomerism in 3-indolyl furanoids: a synthetic, experimental and theoretical perspective

Introduction of axial chirality in bioactive 3-indolyl furanoids has been achieved by systematic alteration of functional groups around the stereogenic axis, keeping in mind that atropisomerically pure analogues may possess different binding affinities and selectivities towards a target protein. The kinetics of racemization of axially chiral 3-indolyl furanoids have been studied through chiral HPLC analysis, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectroscopy, and computational modeling. The results identify the configurational parameters for optically pure 3-indolyl furanoids to exist as stable and isolable atropisomeric form.