Nikolas Huwyler and Erick M. Carreira*

Red algae from the genus Laurencia (Ceramiales) are the source of over 500 halogenated terpenes, cyclic ethers, and acetogenides, which in some cases have been suggested to serve as chemical defence agents because of their activity against pathogenic marine bacteria and herbivores.In 2008 a Spanish research group reported the isolation and structural elucidation of three novel chlorinated sesquiterpenes, gomerones A-C, from samples of Laurencia majuscula collected at the southern coast of La Gomera, Canary Islands. The structurally interesting and unprecedented gomerane skeleton in combination with their unexplored biological activity as well as the halogenated nature of these natural products rendered them noteworthy targets for synthesis.