Synthesis of Substituted THP Rings

I11 Nicolaou s total synthesis of brevetoxin B, for example, out of the eleven transfused six- to eight-membered cyclic ethers, THP rings B, F, G, and I are constructed by application of this methodology through cydization of the appropriate 

For the construction of the I ring, the vinylic group introduced to activate the y-hydroxy epoxide moiety of 28 towards cyclization is an acrylic ester residue, which concomitantly allows cyclization on the allylic position, with formation of the tricyclic compound 29 containing the IJK fragment of the natural product, and fur- 

For the synthesis of the complex natural product, the terminus six-membered ketone 55 had to be transformed into an oxepane ring. For this necessary transformation, the authors were attracted by the single-carbon homologation of a pyr-anone (a sort of ring-expansion) because, in prindple, it could be used in an iterative sense at any stage of the 6-endo cydization in their poly-TH P-based synthetic approach for the synthesis of trans-fused 6,7,6 (THP-oxepane-THP) and 6,7,7 (THP-oxepane-oxepane) ring systems [28]. Treatment of ketone 55 with TMSCHN2 

A11 elegant application of the strategy based on the appropriate use of a 6-exo or 6-endo cyclization of a 5- or y-epoxy alcohol, respectively, to give corresponding adjacent or fused THP rings can be found in the regioselective synthesis of the ABC tris-THP core of thyrsiferol and venustatriol [29b]. 

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