“…But, because of the difficulty of stereoselectively constructing trans-diol functionalities on a cyclopentene ring, no efficient chiral preparation of C 2 -symmetric 4-cyclopentene-1,3-diol (2) has been reported, except for a report by Kurozumi 5 and one by Fuchs. 6 Kurozumi et al reported that asymmetric hydrolysis of a stereoisomeric mixture of diacetate 3 using baker's yeast furnished (-)-2 in 7-17% yield with 10-32% optical purity (Scheme 1). On the other hand, Fuchs et al obtained (+)-2 from chiral sulfide alcohol 4 with 90% ee, via [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of sulfoxide 5 as the key step.…”