Efforts at finding out a strategy for the synthesis of the densely hydroxylated C(27)–C(48) fragment of aflastatin A have been described. The initial studies dealing with alkyne–epoxide coupling using a linear polyol epoxide resulted in a debenzylative cycloetherification leading to a C-arabinoside derivative. This problem has been addressed by applying an epoxide pendant on a furanosyl unit. With the model alkyne, the epoxide–alkyne coupling proceeded smoothly. Subsequently, following a sequence of [Pd]-mediated alkynone cycloisomerization/stereoselective hydroboration–oxidation, the synthesis of the central C(27)–C(38) fragment has been executed. When employed, the original C(33)–C(48) alkyne, the coupling and the cycloisomerizations are facile. However, the resulting glycals are unstable, thus warranting a revision in our approach.

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) - India