Construction of Deoxypropionate Chains via Asymmetric Carboalumination

Significance

This is a new and the first really catalytic method for the synthesis of a deoxypoly­propionate chain and related chiral compounds. Such motif is ubiquitous in many useful natural products, possessing biological activity. This catalytic approach relies on the Zr-catalyzed asymmetric carboalumination of allylic alcohols, followed by carefully designed synthetic transformations. Using this new method, rather complex functionalized deoxypropionate molecules became available from inexpensive starting materials in a short simple synthetic sequence.