The naturally occurring ant venom (13E,15E,18Z,20Z)-1-hydroxypentacosa-13,15,18,20-tetraen-11-yn-4-one 1-acetate was synthesized stereospecifically using a series of metal-mediated cross-coupling reactions. The use of the difunctional olefin template (E)-1-chloro-2-iodoethylene as the central, pseudosymmetrical building block facilitated a fully convergent and, thus, efficient strategy to prepare this polyunsaturated natural product.

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1-Bromo-2-iodoethylene (9) was used as a central, pseudosymmetric building block for the fully convergent and modular synthesis of two related natural products, cis (1a) and trans (1b) bupleurynol. In doing so, a 9-step synthesis of 1a (reported previously) has been vastly truncated to one single operation by using queued cross-coupling reactions with Pd catalysis, negating the need for any protecting group chemistry.

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Solvent-free ring opening of 1,2-epoxides with aromatic thiols under microwave irradiation in the presence of montmorillonite K-10 clay affords high yields of β-hydroxy sulfides. Nucleophilic attack of the thiols occurs regioselectively at the less hindered side of the epoxides.