Studies toward the Total Synthesis of Vinigrol. Synthesis of the Octalin Ring

[reaction: see text] Herein, we disclose our results regarding various strategies toward the assembly of the octanyl ring of vinigrol. Attempts to generate the problematic eight-membered ring through a ring expansion or via unification of the terminal olefins using the ring-closing metathesis were not successful. The cyclooctane ring was created via a sequential hydroxy Diels-Alder/Claisen rearrangement reaction of diene 55 and N-benzylmaleimide.