A direct synthesis of naturally occurring 9-methoxycarbazole-3-carbaldehyde 1, based on our methodology for the synthesis of 1-methoxyindoles, is reported. A novel benzannulation strategy was employed using ring closing metathesis as the key step in this totalsynthesis. The synthesis of the natural product 1 has been achieved in seven steps in 14% overall yield from commercial materials and in only
Two new monomeric and one dimeric carbazole alkaloids were isolated from root bark of Murraya euchrestifolia HAYATA collected in Taiwan. Their structures were elucidated by spectrometric and synthetic studies. The structures of the monomeric carbazoles were assigned as 3-formyl-7-hydroxy-9H-carbazole (1) and N-methoxy-3-hydroxymethyl-9H-carbazole (2). The dimeric carbazole, named chrstifoline-D (9), was found to be identical with the oxidation product of bismurrayafoline-A (10).