A Concise Total Synthesis of Saliniketal B

We report a concise, enantioselective, and highly efficient synthesis of the marine actinomycete-derived natural product saliniketal B. Our approach was motivated with an eye toward future structure-function studies of this inhibitor of phorbol ester-mediated ornithine decarboxylase induction via an unknown mechanism. Our strategy highlights the utility of Pt(II)-mediated cycloisomerization of alkynediols developed in our laboratory to construct the dioxabicyclo[3.2.1]octane ring system, a highly selective aldol fragment coupling whose stereochemical outcome is influenced by a gamma-stereogenic methyl group, and an interesting one-pot desilylation/dihydropyranone fragmentation/amidation sequence. As such, saliniketal B was obtained in 11 steps and 23% overall yield from commercially available starting material via a convergent coupling of two equally complex fragments assembled in seven and eight steps (39 and 45%), respectively.