Printed in Great Britain. @ 1990 IUPAC Synthesis of carbazole alkaloids

Abstract- An account of the authors work on the synthesis of carbazole alkaloids is presented. The treatise also includes relevant work from other groups as well as a review on the synthesis of hyellazoles and carbazomycins. Carbazole alkaloids have received considerable attention, and various aspects of this class have been reviewed by us1 and others.2-10 A rough division of the carbazole alkaloids into three groups can be made. By far the largest group comprises alkaloids isolated from the Rutaceae-family (=the Citrus family). Selected structures are given in Figure 1. The second group contains alkaloids of the hyellazole / carbazomycin type (Figure 2), and in the third group we have placed the alkaloids that will not fall into the above categories (Figure 3). This treatise will be devoted to the synthesis of carbazoles related to the hyellazoles and carbazomycins, with the main emphasis projected to work from our laboratories. A brief discussion of relcvant work concerning the synthesis of the other alkaloids will however also bc included