Relative stereochemical determination of β‐hydroxycarbonyl compounds (aldol products) utilizing the J‐based configuration analysis method

Abstract β‐Hydroxycarbonyl moieties (aldol products) are common features in a variety of molecular structures. Whether this structural motif is synthetically prepared or incorporated into a natural product, the determination of the anti or syn (threo and erythro, respectively) relationship between the α and β centers using previously reported NMR methods has, up to this point, been unreliable. Here, we report a method to determine the relative configuration of aldol products through the combined use of 3JHH homonuclear and, nJCH long‐range heteronuclear coupling constants in tandem with dipolar couplings in a manner related to the previously described J‐based configuration analysis method.