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Zinc borohydride reduction of α-methyl-β-hydroxy ketones 3 produced the erythro-2-methyl-1, 3-glycol derivatives 4 with high stereoselectivity. The selectivity was particularly high when an olefinic group was conjugated to the carbonyl group. Reduction of the same system with NaBH4 and LiBH4 showed poor selectivity.
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Nakata et al. (1984) studied this question.
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