Effective assignment of positional isomers in dimeric shikonin and its analogs by ^(1)H NMR spectroscopy

An approach for distinguishing two types of positional isomers of dimeric shikonin and its analogs was explored with ^(4)JC,H long-range correlation by prolonging the acquisition time at ^(2,3)JC,H values of 2.0 and 8.0Hz.Furthermore,the ^(1)H(proton)nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)pattern of phenolic hydroxyl protons was developed as a“diagnosis signal”to ascertain the relative location of each side chain in DMSO-d_(6) at sample concentrations of 0.022-0.034 mol/L.The chemical shift differences of 0.6ppm between OH-5' and OH-1 and between OH-8'and OH-4 are assigned to Type A and Type B,respectively.All reported ambiguous structures were corrected by this pattern.Additionally,the steric structures of isolated compounds were elucidated by quantum chemical calculations of electronic circular dichroism(ECD)spectra.