Dedicated to Professor Štefan Toma on the occasion of his 75th birthdayAminohydroxylation of prochiral divinylcarbinol and subsequent Pd(II)-catalysed oxy-/amidocarbonylation of aminopentenediols is reported. The method was applied to the preparation of useful building blocks for syntheses of cytotoxic jaspines and glycosidase inhibitor DLX-homologues. The key intermediates, tetrahydrofuranolactones (l-arabino-II) and pyrrolidinolactones (l-arabino-IX and l-xylo-IX), were prepared in a short 2-step sequence from divinylcarbinol.