These compounds are the most important members of a very small group of compounds6 known as “topoisomerase I poisons”.'Camptothecin was synthesized several times during the 1970s, 23* and many (though not all) syntheses rely on the Friedlander quinoline synthesis to construct ring B. Given the current interest in camptothecins, new directions in the total synthesis of this family would be welcome. We now report a short, convergent ...
