Synthesis of hept-6-en-2,4,5-triols and hept-6-en-2,3,5-triols

In a systematic effort to establish the relative as well as absolute configurations of two natural products isolated from Asomycete Daldinia concentrica, four independent (non-antipodal) diastereomers of hept-6-en-2,4,5-triol, the structure previously proposed for the natural products, were synthesized in enantiopure forms through a chiral-pool route and their optical rotation as well as NMR data were recorded. Although these four synthetic isomers cover all possible relative configurations the originally assigned triol may have, none of them gave spectroscopic data compatible with those reported for the natural products. Similar negative results were also obtained with a group of four non-antipodal diastereomers of hept-6-en-2,3,5-triol. The genuine structures of the natural products are therefore to be re-assigned.

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