Marine alkaloids chiral building blocks

An enantioselective total synthesis of (+)-ptilocaulin (79), a marine alkaloid with high antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity, was reported by Schmalz (Scheme 14) [40, 41]. The synthesis starts from anisole-Cr(CO)3, which is converted to the planar-chiral building block 74 with >99% ee by enantioselective deprotonation/silylation [42] and subsequent recrystallization. After attachment of a 2-butenyl side-chain ( 75) [43], nucleophilic addition of 2-lithio-l,3-... 

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