Mild arming and derivatization of natural products via an In(OTf)3-catalyzed arene iodination.

Iodination of arene-containing natural products employing N-iodosuccinimide catalyzed by In(OTf)(3) at ambient temperature is reported as a versatile and mild method for natural product derivatization amenable to small scale. This process facilitates natural product derivatization of arene moieties for SAR studies, homo- and heterodimerization of natural products, and also conjugation with reporters such as biotin via subsequent metal-mediated coupling reactions.