Julia-Kodensky olefination

The Smiles Rearrangement and the Julia-Kodenski Olefination Reaction... 

Paquette and coworkers [127], in a synthesis of the complex polyol antibiotic amfidinolu-3, made masterly use of the Julia-Kodenski olefination reaction. Two examples taken from that work are presented below. Reaction of sulfone 285 with aldehyde 284 (Scheme 92) carried out with KHMDS in THF (at - 78 °C to rt) gave the building block 286 with 90% yield but with relatively poor selectivity, EjZ 1>I. Free-radical isomerization of the mixture (benzene, AIBN, reflux) increased the isomer ratio, /2 6/1. 

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