The enantiomerically pure methyl ester of the complete larger hydroxy acid
(C(1)-C(18)) of the macrodiolide antibiotic pamamycin-607 has been synthesi
zed using a general sultone route to actic acids and analogs. The requisite
N,N-dimethylamino moiety was introduced by Mitsunobu inversion with hydraz
oic acid followed by a reaction cascade involving hydrogenation and double
reductive methylation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.