A facile synthesis of a mixture of the C-11 isomeric 3-oxo-7 alpha H-eudesm
a-4-en-9 beta.12-diol has been achieved from oxycarvone. The C-11 configura
tion of natural product is established through comparison of H-1 NMR spectr
a between synthetic 1b, or the mixture of 1a and 1b, and natural diol.