Woodward published a very brief account on the strychnine synthesis in 1954 (just 3 pages)[15] and a lengthy one (42 pages) in 1963.[16]
Many more methods exist and reported by the research groups of Magnus,[17] Overman,[18] Kuehne,[19][20] Rawal,[21] Bosch,[22][23] Vollhardt,[24][25] Mori,[26][27] Shibasaki,[28] Li,[29] Fukuyama [30] Vanderwal [31] and MacMillan.[32] Synthetic (+)-strychnine is also known.[33][34] Racemic synthesises were published by Padwa in 2007 [35] and in 2010 by Andrade [36] and by Reissig.[37]
In his 1963 publication Woodward quoted Sir Robert Robinson who said[38]for its molecular size it is the most complex substance known.
^X-ray; Messerschmidt, M.; Scheins, S.; Luger, P. (2005). "Charge density of (−)-strychnine from 100 to 15 K, a comparison of four data sets". Acta Crystallogr B. 61 (1): 115–121. doi:10.1107/S0108768104032781. PMID15659864.
^Nicolaou, K. C.; Sorensen, E. J. (1996). Classics in Total Synthesis: Targets, Strategies, Methods. Wiley. ISBN978-3-527-29231-8.
^K. C. Nicolaou, Dionisios Vourloumis, Nicolas Winssinger, Phil S. Baran The Art and Science of Total Synthesis at the Dawn of the Twenty-First CenturyAngewandte Chemie International Edition 2000; Volume 39, Issue 1, Pages: 44-122
^Proudfoot, John R. (2013). "Reaction Schemes Visualized in Network Form: The Syntheses of Strychnine as an Example". Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling. 53 (5): 1035–1042. doi:10.1021/ci300556b. PMID23597302.
^Briggs, L. H.; Openshaw, H. T.; Robinson, Robert (1946). "Strychnine and brucine. Part XLII. Constitution of the neo-series of bases and their oxidation products". J. Chem. Soc.1946: 903. doi:10.1039/JR9460000903.
^Robertson, J. H.; Beevers, C. A. (1951). "The crystal structure of strychnine hydrogen bromide". Acta Crystallogr. 4 (3): 270–275. doi:10.1107/S0365110X5100088X.
^Woodward, R. B.; Cava, Michael P.; Ollis, W. D.; Hunger, A.; Daeniker, H. U.; Schenker, K. (1954). "The Total Synthesis of Strychnine". J. Am. Chem. Soc.76 (18): 4749–4751. doi:10.1021/ja01647a088.
^Woodward, R. B.; Cava, M. P.; Ollis, W. D.; Hunger, A.; Daeniker, H. U.; Schenker, K. (1963). "The total synthesis of strychnine". Tetrahedron. 19 (2): 247–288. doi:10.1016/s0040-4020(01)98529-1.
^Magnus, Philip; Giles, Melvyn; Bonnert, Roger; Kim, Chung S.; McQuire, Leslie; Merritt, Andrew; Vicker, Nigel (1992). "Synthesis of strychnine via the Wieland-Gumlich aldehyde". J. Am. Chem. Soc.114 (11): 4403–4405. doi:10.1021/ja00037a058.
^Knight, Steven D.; Overman, Larry E.; Pairaudeau, Garry (1993). "Synthesis applications of cationic aza-Cope rearrangements. 26. Enantioselective total synthesis of (−)-strychnine". J. Am. Chem. Soc.115 (20): 9293–9294. doi:10.1021/ja00073a057.
^Kuehne, Martin E.; Xu, Feng (1993). "Total synthesis of strychnan and aspidospermatan alkaloids. 3. The total synthesis of (+-)-strychnine". J. Org. Chem.58 (26): 7490–7497. doi:10.1021/jo00078a030.
^Kuehne, Martin E.; Xu, Feng (1998). "Syntheses of Strychnan- and Aspidospermatan-Type Alkaloids. 10. An Enantioselective Synthesis of (−)-Strychnine through the Wieland−Gumlich Aldehyde". J. Org. Chem.63 (25): 9427–9433. doi:10.1021/jo9813989.
^Rawal, Viresh H.; Iwasa, Seiji (1994). "A Short, Stereocontrolled Synthesis of Strychnine". J. Org. Chem.59 (10): 2685–2686. doi:10.1021/jo00089a008.
^Total Synthesis of (−)-Strychnine via the Wieland-Gumlich AldehydeAngewandte Chemie International Edition Volume 38, Issue 3, 1999, Pages: 395-397 Daniel Solé, Josep Bonjoch, Silvina García-Rubio, Emma Peidró, Joan Bosch
^Eichberg, Michael J.; Dorta, Rosa L.; Lamottke, Kai; Vollhardt, K. Peter C. (2000). "The Formal Total Synthesis of (±)-Strychnine via a Cobalt-Mediated [2 + 2 + 2]Cycloaddition". Org. Lett.2 (16): 2479–2481. doi:10.1021/ol006131m. PMID10956526.
^Eichberg, Michael J.; Dorta, Rosa L.; Grotjahn, Douglas B.; Lamottke, Kai; Schmidt, Martin; Vollhardt, K. Peter C. (2001). "Approaches to the Synthesis of (±)-Strychnine via the Cobalt-Mediated [2 + 2 + 2] Cycloaddition: Rapid Assembly of a Classic Framework". J. Am. Chem. Soc.123 (38): 9324–9337. doi:10.1021/ja016333t. PMID11562215.
^Mori, Miwako; Nakanishi, Masato; Kajishima, Daisuke; Sato, Yoshihiro (2003). "A Novel and General Synthetic Pathway to Strychnos Indole Alkaloids: Total Syntheses of (−)-Tubifoline, (−)-Dehydrotubifoline, and (−)-Strychnine Using Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Allylic Substitution". J. Am. Chem. Soc.125 (32): 9801–9807. doi:10.1021/ja029382u. PMID12904045.
^Ohshima, Takashi; Xu, Youjun; Takita, Ryo; Shimizu, Satoshi; Zhong, Dafang; Shibasaki, Masakatsu (2002). "Enantioselective Total Synthesis of (−)-Strychnine Using the Catalytic Asymmetric Michael Reaction and Tandem Cyclization". J. Am. Chem. Soc.124 (49): 14546–14547. doi:10.1021/ja028457r. PMID12465959.
^Martin, David B. C.; Vanderwal, Christopher D. (2011). "A synthesis of strychnine by a longest linear sequence of six steps". Chemical Science. 2 (4): 649. doi:10.1039/C1SC00009H.
^Knight, Steven D.; Overman, Larry E.; Pairaudeau, Garry (1995). "Asymmetric Total Syntheses of (−)- and (+)-Strychnine and the Wieland-Gumlich Aldehyde". J. Am. Chem. Soc.117 (21): 5776–5788. doi:10.1021/ja00126a017.
^Not counted:an unpublished method by Gilbert Stork, Lecture at the Ischia School of Organic Chemistry, Ischia Porb, Italy, September 211992.
^Sirasani, Gopal; Paul, Tapas; William Dougherty, Jr.; Kassel, Scott; Andrade, Rodrigo B. (2010). "Concise Total Syntheses of (±)-Strychnine and (±)-Akuammicine". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 75 (10): 3529–3532. doi:10.1021/jo100516g. PMID20408591.
^Beemelmanns, C.; Reissig, H.-U. (2010). "A Short Formal Total Synthesis of Strychnine with a Samarium Diiodide Induced Cascade Reaction as the Key Step". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 49 (43): 8021–8025. doi:10.1002/anie.201003320. PMID20848626.
^R. Robinson "Molecular structure of Strychnine, Brucine and Vomicine Prog. Org. Chem., 1952; 1 ,2