Concise total syntheses of berberine and its analogues enabled by trifluoroacetic anhydride-promoted decarbonylative-elimination reaction

The total syntheses of berberine hydrochloride and its analogues were achieved by a convergent strategy from available meconine derivatives, which were based on base mediated isoquinoline annulation followed by trifluoroacetic anhydride promoted decarbonylative elimination protocol. Key elements of our approach feature divergent synthesis, step-economy manner, multigram scalable synthesis, transition metal-free and chromatography-free purification.