A series of new dihydroxy-anthraquinones phosphate derivatives were successfully synthesized with diethylphosphite and diisopropylphophite as phosphorylate by modified Atherton-Todd reaction. The selective phosphorylation of α- and β-dihydroxy multi-anthraquinones was investigated and it is found that the reaction activities of β-hydroxyl multi-anthraquinones are much higher than those of α-hydroxyl, which were further confirmed by charge distributing analysis. The structures of these compounds were confirmed by IR, MS, ¹H NMR, ³¹P NMR techniques and elemental analyses. Biological activities of parts of them were preliminarily researched by fluorescence.

Key words: dihydroxy anthraquinone, phosphoryl, synthesis, biological activity