Enantiospecific formal total synthesis of (+)-aspicilin

An enantiospecific formal total synthesis of the macrolide (+)-aspicilin is accomplished from chiral pool tartaric acid. Key features of the synthesis include desymmetrization of the bis-dimethyl amide of tartaric acid and further elaboration to the title compound using olefin cross-metathesis and Yamaguchi macrolactonization as the pivotal steps.