A nickel-catalyzed reductive cascade approach to the efficient construction of diastereodivergent cores embedded in podophyllum lignans is developed for the first time. Their gram-scale access paved the way for unified syntheses of naturally occurring podophyllotoxin and other members.

A Ni-catalyzed reductive cascade to a diastereocontrolled construction of THN[2,3-c]furan, is developed. The mild reaction conditions led to the tolerance of broad functional groups that can be placed in almost every position of this skeleton with good yields. The conformational control for the observed trans- or cis-fused selectivity during this tandem cyclization-coupling is also proposed.

I n our original paper, a recent work about the total synthesis of (−)-podophyllotoxin by Prof. Hajra was missing and should be cited. Reference 9 should thus be revised to include the following citations: "(h)