TAMKANG,UNIVERSITY

Convergent construction directed toward the preparation of enantiomerically-pure targets depends on the availability of enantomerically-pure starting materials. There are many ways that these can be prepared. One way is from carbohydrate precursors, but this approach has been limited, in that L-sugars are much more expensive than D-sugars. Tzenge-Lien Shih of Tamkang University in Taipei describes (Tetrahedron Lett. 45 1789, 2004) the facile conversion of the inexpensive D-ribonolactone derivative 1 to the much more valuable L-ribonolactone derivative 3, by careful hydrolysis of the intermediate mesylate. The epoxide 2 is presumed to be an intermediate in this transformation. 

Naval Research Laboratory, 260 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 337,372 Tamkang University, 272 Trinity University, 40 University of Connecticut, 1,185 University of Delaware, 168,290,316,345 University of Illinois, 127 University of Kentucky, 109 University of Nebraska, 372 University of Texas at Arlington, 355 University of Virginia, 327 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 222,327... 

We thank Professor Y. Asakawa (this University) for valuable discussion and encouragement. We also thank Professors J. D. Connolly (Glasgow University, Scotland) and C. -L. Wu (Tamkang University, Taiwan) for sending spectra of the natural products. This work has been carried out by Dr. M. Sono, Mr. T. Hasebe,... 

Department of Management Sciences and Decision Making, Tamkang University, Taiwan... 

University of Geneva and Bern in Switzerland (1985) University of Lima/Peru (for UNESCO, 1985) Tamkang University Taipei (1986)... 

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