A unified approach to sesquiterpenes sharing trimethyl(p-tolyl) cyclopentanes: Formal total synthesis of (±)-laurokamurene B

Abstract

A unified approach to the sesquiterpenoids sharing common trimethyl(p-tolyl) cyclopentane skeleton has been disclosed via a key Stork-Danheiser sequence on a cyclopentane based vinylogous ester with aryl Grignard reagent followed by α-methylation strategy. The strategy is eventually applied to the concise formal total synthesis of (±)-laurokamurene B (1b) in only 5 steps with 45.4% overall yield.