Further monoterpene chromane esters from Peperomia obtusifolia: VCD determination of the absolute configuration of a new diastereomeric mixture

A reinvestigation of the monoterpene chromane ester enriched fraction from Peperomia obtusifolia using chiral chromatography led to the identification of a minor peak, which was elucidated by NMR and HRMS as fenchyl-3,4-dihydro-5-hydroxy-2,7-dimethyl-8-(3″-methyl-2″-butenyl)-2-(4′-methyl-1′,3′-pentadienyl)-2H-1-benzopyran-6-carboxylate, the same structure assigned to two other fenchyl esters described previously, pointing out a stereoisomeric relationship among them. Further NMR analysis revealed that it was actually a mixture of two compounds, whose absolute configurations were determined by VCD measurements. Although, almost no vibrational transitions could be assigned to the chiral chromane, the experimental VCD spectrum was largely opposite to that obtained for the average experimental VCD [(2S,1‴R,2‴R,4‴S + 2R,1‴R,2‴R,4‴S)/2] for fenchol derivatives. These results allowed us to assign the putative compounds as a racemic mixture of the chiral chromane esterified with the monoterpene (1S,2S,4R)-fenchol, which had not been identified in our early work.