“…The alkene 7 was subjected to cross metathesis with methyl vinyl ketone ( 8 ) mediated by Hoveyda-Grubbs second generation catalyst ( 9 ) 19 to provide enone 10 in 82% yield (Scheme 3). Upon exposure to paraformaldehyde as an equivalent of formaldehyde and 1,3,5-trioxane 16 in the presence of MsOH, 1,3-dioxane ring formed smoothly by oxa-Michael reaction to give rise to desired (7 R *)-heterotricycle 11r and the (7 S *) epimer 11s (structure not shown) in the ratio of >9 : 1, as well as the N -hydroxymethylated product 12r (see Scheme 3) and the (7 S *) epimer 12s (structure not shown). Since we had found that alkaline hydrolysis is of use to remove the N -hydroxymethyl group, the mixture of hemiaminals ( 12r / 12s ) and free amides ( 11r / 11s ) was treated with ammonium hydroxide 20 to obtain free amide 11r in 73% isolated yield (2 steps), and free amide 11s in 10% yield (estimated by NMR, 2 steps).…”