“…Our interest in jiadifenolide derives not only from its potent bioactivity, but also from its complex seco -prezizaane skeleton, placing it amongst the Illicium family of sesquiterpenoids, 4 which has garnered substantial synthetic attention. 2a , 5 Jiadifenolide’s intricate and densely functionalized caged pentacyclic structure ( 1 ) comprises four rings emanating from a central, highly substituted B-ring cyclohexane. This poses particular synthetic challenges, most notably the controlled introduction of five contiguous quaternary stereocenters, which we aimed to address as part of a concise and efficient total synthesis, 6 following that first reported by Theodorakis in 2011 and most recently by Sorensen (2014).…”