“…Accordingly, the reductive oxazolidine ring-opening of (3 R ,5a S ,9a R ,9b S )- 2a , by treatment with Et 3 SiH/BF 3 ·OEt 2 in CH 2 Cl 2 at room temperature, gave the cis -fused octahydroisoindolone (3a R ,7a S )-2-(1 R )- 4 in 98% yield. Removal of the phenylglycinol fragment was achieved without loss of stereochemical integrity by the conversion of the alcohol moiety in (3a R ,7a S )-2-(1 R )- 4 to the corresponding chloride, followed by the base-induced elimination to generate an enamide, which by acid hydrolysis gave the octahydroisoindolone (3a R ,7a S )- 6 in 93% overall yield for the three steps . Most importantly, (3a R ,7a S )- 6 obtained in this manner displayed an optical rotation consistent with that reported in the literature for its enantiomer and its structure was confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis .…”