The first naturally occurring anhydrophytosphingosine, pachastrissamine (jaspine B), a marine compound cytotoxic toward P388, A549, HT29, and MEL28 cell lines at IC 50 ) 0.01 µg/mL level, has been stereoselectively synthesized from D-xylose in 10 linear steps with 25.7% overall yield.Pachastrissamine (1, Figure 1) is a natural occurring anhydrophytosphingosine derivative, first isolated in 2002 by Higa and co-workers 1 from the Okinawa marine sponge Pachastrissa sp. (family Calthropellidae). Bioassay-guided separation of the sponge crude oil led to pure 1, which exhibited a significant cytotoxicity of 0.01 µg/mL against P388, A549, HT29, and MEL28 cell lines. Almost at the same time, Debitus and coworkers 2 investigated the cytotoxicity of ethanolic extract (IC 95 ) 10 µg/mL, KB cell line) from a new species of Jaspis, a marine sponge collected in Vanuatu, and the bioguided fractionation of this extract using a brine shrimp bioassay led to two cytotoxic compounds, named as jaspine A (2, Figure 1) and jaspine B (1, Figure 1). Jaspine B hydrochloride displayed remarkable bioactivity (IC 50 ) 0.24 µM) against the A549 human lung carcinoma cell line using the ATPlite assay and represented the most potent anticancer agent on this cell line yet isolated from the Jaspis genus. High-resolution NMR, mass spectral analysis, and chemical derivatization studies suggested that the structure of pachastrissamine and jaspine B were identical, i.e., an all-syn trisubstituted tetrahedrofuran framework and the (2S,3S,4S) absolute configuration.It has been reported that sphingosine 1-phosphate induces a rapid and relevant release of arachidonic acid and increases phospholipase D activity in A549 cells. 3 To improve our understanding of this anhydrosphingosine targeting to tumor cells and explore more potent analogues based on this novel structure, we launched a stereoselective total synthesis of natural pachastrissamine (jaspine B). During our efforts, two synthetic communications 4,5 aimed to the total synthesis of pachastrissamine (jaspine B) using L-serine as starting material were published. In Rao's work, 4 a diastereoisomeric mixture of 1 was formed, using a standard asymmetric synthesis, in 10 steps and 15.4% overall yield. In Datta's letter, 5 enantiopure 1 was prepared through a bicyclic lactone intermediate in 14 steps and 15.5% overall yield from L-serine. Here, we report the stereoselective total synthesis of pachastrissamine (jaspine B).Pachastrissamine 1 can be retrosynthetically disconnected into a formylfuran derivative 3 and a commercially available alkyl Wittig reagent. The furan structure of 3 can be derived from 2,5-ring closure of an acyclic intermediate 4, which can be easily prepared from natural D-xylose through suitable functional group transformations (Scheme 1).D-Xylose treated with concentrated H 2 SO 4 in acetone 6 gave 1,2-acetal 5 in 82% yield (Scheme 2). Regioselective tosylation of 5 on the primary alcohol with tosylimidazolide, MeOTf, and N-methylimidazole in THF at 0°C afforded 6 in excellent y...