Rottlerin is a natural product isolated from the fruit of the kamala tree. Previous studies have shown that it is a potent inhibitor of protein kinase C delta, an enzyme that is critical for the survival of many types of cancer cells. However, treatment of non-cancerous cells with similar doses of rottlerin has no effect. Thus rottlerin, or compounds similar in structure, could find use as selective drugs to kill cancer cells without harming healthy cells. The goal of this project was to synthesize a palladium catalyst that could be used in future experiments to synthesize rottlerin analogs.
