Enantioselective Synthesis of 5-epi-Citreoviral Using Ruthenium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Ring-Closing Metathesis

Chiral ruthenium olefin metathesis catalysts can perform asymmetric ring-closing reactions in >= 90% ee with low catalyst loadings. To illustrate the practicality of these reactions and the products they form, an enantioselective total synthesis of 5-epi-citreoviral was completed by using an asymmetric ring-closing olefin metathesis reaction as a key step early in the synthesis. All of the stereocenters in the final compound were set by using the chiral center generated by asymmetric olefin metathesis.