A C2-Symmetric Chiral Pool-Based Flexible Strategy: Synthesis of (+)-and (-)-Shikimic Acids, (+)- and (-)-4-epi-Shikimic Acids, and (+)- and (-)-Pinitol

Via combination of a novel acid-promoted rearrangement of acetal functionality with the controlled installation of the epoxide unit to create the pivotal epoxide intermediates in enantiomerically pure form, a simple, concise, flexible, and readily scalable enantiodivergent synthesis of (+)- and (-)-shikimic acids and (+)- and (-)-4-epi-shilcimic acids has emerged. This simple strategy not only provides an efficient approach to shikimic acids but also can readily be adopted for the synthesis of (+)- and (-)-pinitols. These concise total syntheses exemplify the use of pivotal allylic epoxide 14 and its enantiomer ent-14. A readily available inexpensive C-2-symmetric L-tartaric acid (7) served as key precursor. In general, the strategy here provides a neat example of the use of a four-carbon chiron and offers a good account of the synthesis of functionalized cyclohexane targets.