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An expedient, practical, and enantioselective route to the highly congested ent-kaurane diterpene maoecrystal V is presented. This route, which has been several years in the making, is loosely modeled after a key pinacol shift in the proposed biosynthesis. Only 11 steps, many of which are strategic in that they build key skeletal bonds and incorporate critical functionalities, are required to access (-)-maoecrystal V. Several unique and unexpected maneuvers are featured in this potentially scalable pathway. Reevaluation of the biological activity calls into question the initial exuberance surrounding this natural product.
Cernijenko et al. (Tue,) studied this question.