Stork-Wittig olefination

Fortunately, in coimection with the total synthesis of spirangien-A, the Stork-Wittig olefination was shown to provide the corresponding (Z)-compound 621 also, in a Z/E ratio of 19 1 [232]. 

Scheme 3 illustrates retrosynthetic analysis of the E and F series of PGs. The widely used Corey synthesis (2) takes notice of the presence of the two olefinic bonds in the side chains of PGF2a. The actual synthesis consists of a two-fold Wittig-type chain extension of a chiral dialdehyde equivalent with four defined stereogenic centers derived from cyclopentadiene via a series of bicyclic intermediates. A similar sequential synthesis has been developed at Upjohn Co. (la). These chemical syntheses are much more economical than enzymatic methods and are used for commercial synthesis of certain PGs. An alternative pathway pioneered by Sih is the conjugate addition approach (3). Nucleophilic addition of an E-olefinic co side-chain unit to a cyclopentenone in which the a side chain is already installed leads directly to PGE-type compounds. Untch and Stork used an co chain unit with a Z-olefinic bond (4). The most direct and flexible synthesis is the convergent three-component coupling synthesis via consecutive linking of the two side chains to unsubstituted 4-hydroxy-2-cyclopentenone derivatives (5, 6). 

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