Enzymatic Synthesis of a Dihydrobenzofuran Neolignan by Oxidative Coupling

The oxidative dimerization of ferulic acid has been carried out using horse-radish peroxidase as catalyst to give a dihydrobenzofuran neolignan (1), the structure of which was elucidated as (2SR, 3RS)-2,3-dihydro-2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-3n-butoxycarbonyl-5-(2E-carboxyethenyl)-7methoxybenzofuran by spectroscopic analyses. This compound showed more potent cytotoxicity against several tumor cell lines than the starting material.