Health for financial support (GM 30757) and . K. O'Brien thanks the Graduate Alumni of Case Western Reserve University for the award of a Graduate Fellowship (August 1987-May 1988. Supplementary Material Available: Structural report for compound 6 giving methods for data collection, data reduction, structure solution and refinement, tables of crystal data, intensity measurements, structure solution and refinement, positional and thermal parameters, general temperature factor expressions, bond distances, bond angles, and intensity data, and a drawing of a single molecule showing 30% probability ellipsoids (22 pages); listing of observed and calculated structure factors (25 pages). Ordering information is given on any current masthead page.(16) This is the shortest total synthesis of (±)-trichodermol so far recorded, requiring 16 steps from 4-methylanlsole, which augurs well for the future use of 4 and related complexes. For comparison, Raphael's synthesis of trichodermin uses 19 steps from 4-methylanisole and was plagued by a difficult internal aldol reaction to generate the C ring. Still's synthesis of trichodermol elegantly overcomes this problem, but it involves 24 steps from 4-methylanisole (ref 2).

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