Regio- and chemoselective synthesis of polyaryl flavones by combination of C-O/C-H activation and Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reactions

The first regioselective ruthenium-catalyzed arylation of flavone-derived compounds is reported. Exploring the molecular structure-reactivity different 5-,5,8-, 5,7-, 5,6-and 5,7,8-aryl substituted flavones were prepared through Ru-, Ni-and Pd-catalyzed coupling reactions with aryl boronic species under regio-and chemoselective approach in moderate to excellent yields. The obtained derivatives were thoroughly characterized by spectro-scopic techniques, such as 1H NMR, 13C NMR and HRMS data. The convenient availability of starting natural product chrysin confers facility to the employed reactions which products may find application in pharmaceu-tical and material science areas.