Alkyne - Alkynes in Nature and Medicine

Alkynes in Nature and Medicine

According to Ferdinand Bohlmann, the first naturally occurring acetylenic compound, dehydromatricaria ester, was isolated from an Artemisia species in 1826. In the nearly two centuries that have followed, well over a thousand naturally occurring acetylenes have been discovered and reported. Polyynes, a subset of this class of natural products, have been isolated from a wide variety of plant species, cultures of higher fungi, bacteria, marine sponges, and corals. Some acids like tariric acid contains an alkyne group. Diynes and triynes, species with the linkage RC≡C-C≡CR' and RC≡C-C≡C-C≡CR' respectively, occur in certain plants (Ichthyothere, Chrysanthemum, Cicuta, Oenanthe and other members of the Asteraceae and Apiaceae families). Some examples are cicutoxin, oenanthotoxin, falcarinol and carotatoxin. These compounds are highly bioactive, e.g. as nematocides. 1-Phenylhepta-1,3,5-triyne is illustrative of a naturally occurring triyne.

Alkynes occur in some pharmaceuticals, including the contraceptive norethynodrel. A carbon-carbon triple bond is also present in marketed drugs such as the antiretroviral Efavirenz and the antifungal Terbinafine. Molecules called ene-diynes feature a ring containing an alkene ("ene") between two alkyne groups ("diyne"). These compounds, e.g. calicheamicin, are some of the most aggressive antitumor drugs known, so much so that the ene-diyne subunit is sometimes referred to as a "warhead." Ene-diynes undergo rearrangement via the Bergman cyclization, generating highly reactive radical intermediates that attack DNA within the tumor.