Tiacumicin B is an antibiotic endowed with the remarkable ability to interact with a new biological target, giving it an inestimable potential in the context of the ever-growing and worrisome appearance of resistances of bacteria and mycobacteria to antibiotics. The synthesis of an aglycone of tiacumicin B ready for glycosylation is reported. The key steps of this approach are a [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement, a Pd/Cu-catalyzed allene-alkyne cross-coupling, a E-selective cross-metathesis, and a final ring-size selective macrolactonization.

A total synthesis of tiacumicin B, a natural macrolide whose remarkable antibiotic properties are used to treat severe intestinal infections, is reported. The strategy is in part based on the prior synthesis of the tiacumicin B aglycone, and on the decisive use of sulfoxides as anomeric leaving groups in hydrogen‐bond‐mediated aglycone delivery (HAD). This new HAD variant permitted highly β‐selective rhamnosylation and noviosylation. To increase convergence, the rhamnosylated C1–C3 fragment thus obtained was anchored to the C4–C19 aglycone fragment by adapting the Suzuki–Miyaura cross‐coupling used for the aglycone synthesis. Ring‐size‐selective macrolactonization provided a compound engaged directly in the noviolysation step with virtually total β selectivity. The final efficient removal of all the protecting groups provided synthetic tiacumicin B.

PdII and CuI cooperate in catalyzing the alkynes hydrocarbation of allenes (AHA) giving (E)-1,3-enynes with high yields, atom economy, and high regio-/stereoselectivities. We devised new efficient conditions and expanded the substrate scope. Experimental and computational studies support a nonorthodox PdII/PdIV catalytic cycle involving an oxidative addition triggered by a stereodeterminant H+ transfer. This reaction is leveraged in a new strategy of stereoselective synthesis of 1,3-dienes.