The stereocontrolled construction of cycloheptanoid ring systems, relevant to sesquiterpenes and
diterpenes of biological activity, is described. A new and highly efficient cyclization methodology
provides stereocontrolled routes to polyfunctionalized and hydroxylated cycloheptanoid (and
cyclohexanoid) rings. An alkyne or alkene terminus is shown to cyclize onto a 2,3-epoxy alcohol
unit to give a cycloheptanoid ring incorporating syn-1,2-dihydroxylated functionality. Unusually,
these carbocyclizations take place at the less substituted epoxide carbon atom of 2,3-epoxy alcohols,
to the effective exclusion of alternative modes of cyclization. Chelation control is invoked to account
for the highly efficient 7-endo-tet processes. Those processes occur at the expense of the normally
more favored 6-exo-tet cyclizations. The little used Lewis acids SnBr4 and Sn(OTf)2 are shown to
be effective in promoting acetylenic epoxy alcohol cyclizations. The effect of the relative configuration
of the epoxy alcohol unit upon the outcome of the cyclization was studied.