An efficient total synthesis of isodrimeninol from zamoranic acid

An efficient total synthesis of isodrimeninol (1) has been achieved from za moranic acid (3) employing a regioselective Lewis acid mediated elimination -isomerisation as the key step. Following oxidative cleavage of the resulti ng conjugated diene to the methyl ketone, standard manipulations allowed th e synthesis of allylic alcohols 10 which, after a highly diastereoselective epoxidation and subsequent lactonisation, allowed the synthesis of the nat ural product in 11 steps and 56% overall yield.