Total syntheses of the polycyclic natural products agelastatin A and pareitropone have been accomplished through the agency of alkynyliodonium salts. A review of these efforts, which emphasizes the value of hypervalent iodine chemistry in raising the molecular complexity of substrates upon chemical transformation, follows.Keywords: Agelastatin A, pareitropone, alkynyliodonium salts, natural products synthesis A desire to exploit the unique reactivity patterns offered by alkynyliodonium salts (5) has fueled a continuing effort to develop efficient syntheses of naturally occurring principles at Penn State. A progress report that details some recently completed projects in the areas of agelastatin A (1) and pareitropone (2) assembly is described herein.1 These advances owe much to the seminal contributions of many workers around the world, especially those recorded by the groups of Stang, Koser and Moriarity in the US, Ochiai and Kita in Japan, and, of course, by Anastasios Varvoglis' group at Thessaloniki. 2,3,4 In particular, this renaissance in hypervalent iodine chemistry is captured beautifully in two recent scholarly treatises authored by Varvoglis. 3 These books provide the foundation of, and the inspiration for, the synthesis work outlined below. Successful execution of total synthesis efforts often hinges on identifying solutions to problems of chemo-and stereoselectivity. Synthesis routes featuring alkynyliodonium salts are no exception, and key discoveries by Stang, 5 and independently, Ochiai, 6 have provided insight into how these types of selectivity issues might be addressed. In 1991, Stang and Zhdankin introduced PhI(CN)OTf (4) as a phenyliodonium transfer reagent of exquisite chemoselectivity in preparing alkynyliodonium units 5 from alkynylstannane precursors 3, Scheme 1. 5 Prior to this advance, it was unclear whether any of the existing iodonium transfer reagents could perform with the requisite selectivity that reaction with complex, multifunctional substrates demanded.