As equence of vinylalumination of a-substituted aldehydes,r ing-closingm etathesis (RCM), and palladium-catalyzed allylic substitution was utilized to prepare the biologically active natural products, pericosines, from d-ribose. The anti-adduct of vinylaluminationw as transformed into pericosine Aa fter RCM, removalo ft he 4-methoxybenzyl protect-ing group, and chlorination. The diacetate of the anti-adduct was converted to pericosine Ca fter the palladium-catalyzed, S N 2'-type, allylic substitution. However,a nu nexpected dimeric product was generated in utilizing this approacht o preparep ericosine E.
Results and DiscussionRetrosynthetic analysis of the pericosines is shown in Scheme1,w hich indicates that cyclitol 1 is the key intermediate. Furtherm anipulations to the allylic alcohol, such as S N 2, S N 2',o rp alladium-catalyzeds ubstitution reactions, could lead to the target pericosines A, C, andE .C yclitol 1 could be obtained from the RCM reaction of the 1,7-diene 3,d erived from Figure 1. Structure of naturallyo ccurring pericosines.