Absolute configuration of (−)-cubebin, a classical lignan with pharmacological potential, defined by means of chiroptical spectroscopy

This work describes the first determination of the absolute configuration (AC) of (−)-cubebin by means of electronic circular dichroism (ECD), supported by quantum chemical calculations. The comparison of experimental ECD with the corresponding quantum chemical prediction for the proper diastereoisomer resulted in the definitive assignment of the AC of the naturally occurring (−)-cubebin as (8R,8aR,9S). The challenging determination of the relative configuration (RC) of cubebin based only on experimental nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods is stressed. Computation of the ¹³C and ¹H NMR chemical shifts for all the possible diastereoisomers leads to values of mean absolute error and root mean square deviation that do not allow distinguishing among them. Thus, errors in stereochemical determination can easily occur even when using two dimensional methods, which clearly demonstrate the complexity of this special case. To determine the RC of this bioactive natural compound with high level of confidence, it was necessary to combine the DP4⁺ method with X-ray crystallography. Therefore, employing the commonly used empirical methods to determine the AC of (−)-cubebin can easily lead to misassignment of its stereochemistry. (author)