Enantioselective stereodivergent approach to α-hydroxy skipped dienes: Synthesis of the western polyene fragment of corallopyronin A

Synthesis of the western polyene fragment of corallopyronin A is documented. The α-hydroxy skipped diene structure is stereoselectively synthesized by our method consisting of enantioselective allenylation of an aldehyde, hydroboration of the resulting 1, 1-disubstituted allene and Migita-Kosugi-Stille coupling. The developed approach could become a general platform for α-hydroxy skipped dienes embedded in a number of biologically active natural products because all eight stereoisomers of the α-hydroxy skipped diene are potentially available from the same aldehyde through these three stereodivergent reactions.