A novel cyclic depsinonapeptide antifungal 1a (Sch 57697) and its isom
er 1b were synthesized by a fragment coupling approach and this method
ology was applied to the total synthesis of the natural product aureob
asidin A. Synthetic strategies for coupling of N-methyl amino acids wi
th minimal racemization are discussed. Biological evaluation of isomer
s la and Ib demonstrated the importance of chirality at the beta-hydro
xy-N-methylvaline (OHMeVal) position. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Scie
nce Ltd