“…The isolation has been reported 1 of five polyoxygenated cyclohexenylmethanol dibenzoates, (-)-zeylenol 2,3 1, (-)-epizeylenol 2,4 2, (-)-uvarigranol G 5 3, (-)-tonkinenin A 6 4 and (+)-pipoxide 2,7 5, from plants of the genus Uvaria which are widely distributed across Asia, Africa, and Australia and are used in Chinese traditional medicine to treat digestive disorders. Although the structures of two, 1 and 5, have been determined unambiguously on the basis of chemical correlation 8 and the racemic synthesis of the latter as well as X-ray analysis 7 of the racemate, the structures of the other three were proposed only on the basis of spectroscopic measurements. Since the diastereo-and enantio-controlled synthesis of these natural products has so far not been reported, we were interested in the construction of these natural products utilizing the chiral cyclohexanoid building block 9 7 prepared from the mesoenediol 6 by either a catalytic 10 or an enzymatic 11 asymmetric desymmetrization procedure.…”