An efficient synthesis of buffalo milk pentasaccharide derivative via a 3 + 2 strategy is described. The use of a trisaccharide isopropyl thioglycoside as a latent glycosyl donor and the application of two well-defined regioselective glycosylations significantly simplified the target preparation. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.Keywords: Glycosylation; Antigens; Thioglycosides; Oligosaccharides; Regioselectivity Milk, which contains numerous complex carbohydrate components, is known as a good source of oligosaccharide antigens and bifidus factors for breastfed newborns. 1 Monoclonal antibodies of several tumour cell lines or carbohydrate antigens have provided evidence that membrane glycoproteins or glycolipids, which may function as differentiation antigens or tumour-associate antigens, also occur as free oligosaccharides in human milk. 2 Different types of milk since then have been analyzed for their oligosaccharides that have immunological properties. 3 Recently, Deepak and coworkers 4 isolated a novel pentasaccharide from immunostimulant oligosaccharide fraction of buffalo milk with the following structure:A six-fold increase in haemagglutinating antibody (HA) titre and a two-fold increase in plaque-forming cell (PFC) count were reported in treated animals as compared with untreated controls. To investigate structure -activity relationships, we planned to prepare a monomer and a trimer of the above-mentioned pentasaccharide. We present here the concise chemical synthesis of this pentasaccharide derivative.The efficient chemical synthesis of complex oligosaccharides requires highly convergent strategies in which well-designed glycosyl donors and acceptors are assembled involving a minimum of steps of reactions. Accordingly, the target molecule was retrosynthetically disconnected into a disaccharide acceptor 5 and a trisaccharide donor 14 as shown in Scheme 1. Thus, compound 1 5 was condensed with 3 6 in the presence of N-iodosuccinimide (NIS) and catalytic amount of trimethylsilyl triflate (TMSOTf) to afford disaccharide 4 in 89% yield. The stereochemical outcome is induced by the neighbouring-group participation of donor 1 and confirmed by the 1 H NMR spectroscopy of 4 (H-1: l 4.49 ppm, J 1,2 8.0 Hz). Hydrolysis of 4 in aqueous 90% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) furnished disaccharide acceptor 5 in good yield (84.5%). Convergently, 1 was reacted with p-methoxyphenol (MPOH) with the promotion of NIS -TMSOTf in dry CH 2 Cl 2 to give 2, which was treated with 90% TFA to generate diol 6 (63.7% for two steps). Regioselective coupling of 6 with glucosamine imidate 7 in anhydrous CH 2 Cl 2 in the presence of TMSOTf produced b-(1 3)-linked disaccharide 8 in 72% yield. Acetylation of 8 with acetic anhydride in pyridine gave 9 showing H-4 at l 5.63 ppm (J 4,3 3.4 Hz), which confirmed the correct regioselectivity. Ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) promoted cleavage of anomeric MP of 9 was carried out smoothly in toluene -MeCN -H 2 O co-solvent system ( 10), followed by Schmidt activation using trichloro...