10.1021/ol9017408
Hiroki Furuta, Yuki Hasegawa, and Yuji Mori from Meijo University, Japan, describes the successful total synthesis of gambierol, a neurotoxin isolated from the dino?agellate Gambierdiscus toxicus. The authors utilized an oxiranyl anion strategy iteratively to construct the complex polycyclic architecture of gambierol, which includes 18 stereogenic centers and a partially conjugated triene side chain. The synthesis involved direct carbon-carbon bond formation on epoxides, sulfonyl-assisted 6-endo cyclization, and ring-expansion reactions to form seven-membered rings. Key steps included the coupling of oxiranyllithium with various triflates, ring-expansion using trimethylsilyldiazomethane, and selective reduction and functional group transformations. The final step involved a Stille coupling reaction to incorporate the triene side chain. The synthesized gambierol matched the previously reported spectroscopic and physical data, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new synthetic approach.