Asymmetric couplings, benzylic ether

An even more efficient strategy might be based upon the utilization of the same chiral building block for all the asymmetric centers provided such a building block is readily available in enantiomerically pure form. The benzyl ether of 21 (see equation 10) is the intermediate in the cuprate coupling of 28... 

Z)-awh-4-Hydroxy-l-aIkenyl carbamates 363, when subjected to substrate-directed, vanadyl-catalysed epoxidation , lead to diastereomerically pure epoxides of type 364 (equation 99)247,252,269 qqjggg epoxides are highly reactive in the presence of Lewis or Brpnsted acids to form -hydroxylactol ethers 366 in some cases the intermediate lactol carbamates 365 could be isolated . However, most epoxides 364 survive purification by silica gel chromatography . The asymmetric homoaldol reaction, coupled with directed epoxidation, and solvolysis rapidly leads to high stereochemical complexity. Some examples are collected in equation 99. The furanosides 368 and 370, readily available from (/f)-0-benzyl lactaldehyde via the corresponding enol carbamates 367 and 369, respectively, have been employed in a short synthesis of the key intermediates of the Kinoshita rifamycin S synthesis . 1,5-Dienyl carbamates such as 371, obtained from 2-substituted enals, provide a facile access to branched carbohydrate analogues . 

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