Total synthesis of pulverolide: revision of its structure

A flexible and practical strategy toward the synthesis of rare 2H-furo[3,2-b]benzopyran-2-one skeleton has been developed. With a microwave-assisted cyclization-dehydration as the key transformation, the first total synthesis of pulverolide has been completed in 10 steps with 9% overall yield, leading to the revision of its proposed structure. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.