The protected a,P-dihydroxy aldehyde 2, a key building block for several macrolide antibiotics, has been synthesized from the epoxy alcohol 6. Oxidation furnishes the corresponding aldehyde ?, which is acetalized with ketones in the prescence of SnC1, with complete inversion of configuration at C-3.Aldehydes such as 2 are important building blocks in the synthesis of several macrolides ') (e.g. erythronolide A'), rnethynolide3), pikronolide4) and kromycin5")). The aldehydes 2 have been prepared previously in six or more steps from the resolved acid 1 16,18), D-fructose6) or D-glucose*). The hitherto shortest routes5) to compound 2a start from the allylic alcohol 3 and lead to the aldehyde 2 a in five steps (48% overall yield Another route uses cl,P-epoxy esters of the type 4 as precursors. Hoffmann and Ladner6a) have shown, that these epoxy esters undergo a clean reaction with ketones in the presence of tin tetrachloride to form the protected a,P-dihydroxy esters 5 with inversion of configuration at C-3. These esters are converted into the aldehydes 2 by a reduction-oxidation process.As a part of a project concerned with the synthesis of erythronolide A2,6b), an efficient synthesis of aldehyde 2b is required. Our new approach also starts from the allylic alcohol 7, 3, which is subjected to catalytic Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation'). The resulting epoxy alcohol 6 (> 98% ee, 85% yield) is best oxidized to 7 according to the Swern19) procedure (95%).Subsequent reaction of the epoxy aldehyde 7 with the carbonyl compounds 8 in the presence of 0.20 equiv. of tin tetrachloride in dichloromethane at -30°C for three days furnishes the protected a$-dihydroxy aldehydes 2a -d in good yields.
I R'
2a-d R2