A stereoselective total synthesis of (±)-eremophilone (1) is reported starting from the known 7-epinootkatone. The synthetic sequence involves reductive deconjugation of 7-epinootkatone to homoallylic alcohol 10. Dehydration of 10 by pyrolysis of its acetate gives triene 18, which can be selectively epoxidized at the more substituted double bond to give 19. Mild acid catalyzed rearrangement of this allylic epoxide is effected with lithium perchlorate in refluxing benzene, and, after base-catalyzed equilibration of the enone system, a 1:1 mixture of eremophilone and its /3,7-unsaturated isomer, itself a natural product, is produced.

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Malacoplakia is a rare chronic inflammatory disease, usually involving the bladder but occasionally affecting other organs. However, only two cases of malacoplakia of the retroperitoneum and ureter have been reported in the English language literature.1,2 Herein, we describe the third case of malacoplakia of the retroperitoneum and ureter in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus who had been receiving prednisone therapy for two years. Modification by the steroid of phagocytosis and of the normal inflammatory response to bacterial infection, and the systemic lupus erythematosus, may have been of major importance in the genesis of malacoplakia in this patient. CASE REPORT