S. Vrielynck et al., A CHEMOENZYMATIC SYNTHESIS OF A-RING KEY-INTERMEDIATES FOR 1-ALPHA,25-DIHYDROXYVITAMIN D-3 AND ANALOGS, Tetrahedron letters, 36(49), 1995, pp. 9023-9026
A short and practical synthesis of the 1,7-enyne A-ring intermediate a
nd of Uskokovic's phosphine-oxide precursor is described starting from
the aldol product of acrolein with t-butyl acetate. Enantiopure beta-
hydroxy ester is obtained upon lipase-catalyzed resolution.