Progress toward the Total Synthesis of Gukulenin A: Photochemically Triggered Two-Carbon Ring Expansion Key to α-Tropolonic Ether Synthesis.

The ex-chiral-pool synthesis of an advanced gukulenin A precursor from (-)-piperitone is revealed. Key C/C connecting maneuvers to the synthesis of a C2 dissymmetric bis(α-tropolonic) ether building block are a ring-contracting Meinwald rearrangement, a photochemically triggered two-carbon ring expansion, and a homodimerization by cross-metathesis.