A Concise Route to a Key Intermediate in the Total Syntheses of (+)-Tirandamycic Acid and (-)-Tirandamycin A.

Abstract An efficacious, asymmetric synthesis of the 2,9-dioxabicyclo[3,3,1]nonane 4 has been completed in nine chemical steps from 4,5-dimethylfuraldehyde (8). Since enantiomerically pure 4 has been previously converted in five steps by Ireland into (+)-tirandamycic acid (3) and more recently by Schlessinger into (-)-tirandamycin A (1), this achievement constitutes in a strictly formal sense the total syntheses of these substances. The key step in the synthesis of 4 features the transformation of the enantiomerically pure furfuryl diol 25 into 29 by initial selective oxidation of (the furan ring and subsequent acid-catalyzed bicycloketalization.