Synthesizing EBC-46, the cancer-killing compound in rainforest blushwood fruit

A few years ago you may have seen reports of the cancer-killing blushwood fruit from the Austrailian rainforest. Injected into a tumor it provokes an inflammatory immune response. Recently, researchers at Stanford University have synthesized it from phorbol.

A good starting point for making EBC-46, Wender and colleagues realized, is the plant-derived compound phorbol. More than 7,000 plant species produce phorbol derivatives worldwide and phorbol-rich seeds are commercially inexpensive. The researchers selected Croton tiglium, commonly known as purging croton, an herb used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Wender, P.A., Gentry, Z.O., Fanelli, D.J. et al. Practical synthesis of the therapeutic leads tigilanol tiglate and its analogues. Nat. Chem. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-01048-2

News report from 2019