“…The epothilones shown in Table 1 were constructed as summarized in Scheme 2. Thus, alcohol 8, prepared in 91 % yield by addition of ()-allyldiisopinocampheyl borane [()-Ipc 2 B(allyl)] to the known aldehyde 6, [21] was coupled with carboxylic acid 7 [10] (3:2 mixture with its C6,C7 diastereomer) with DCC and 4-DMAP to afford ester 9 (49 % yield, after chromatographic separation from its C6,C7 diastereomer). Exposure of 9 to catalytic amounts of [RuCl 2 (CHPh)(PCy 3 ) 2 ] in CH 2 Cl 2 at ambient temperature resulted in a mixture of (Z) and (E) cycloolefins, which were chromatographically separated on silica gel (flash column, hexanes/ethyl acetate 9/1): The required stannanes were either commercially available (5 h, i), synthesized according to literature procedures (5 b ± d, 5 j, k), [22] or prepared by the sequences shown in Scheme 3.…”