Manganese dioxide, oxidation of allylic

Two asymmetric synthesis approaches to chiral cyclopentenone derivatives can be envisaged. The first, reduced to practice by Noyori (43), involved reduction of cyclopentene-l,4-dione with lithium aluminum hydride chirally modified with binaphthol to give R-4-hydroxycyclopent-2-en-l-one in 94% e.e. Alternatively, manganese dioxide oxidation of allylic alcohol [40] (Fig. 7), in analogy to the cis isomer (54), would be expected to give the same enone. 

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