The 4-hydroxy 4-substituted glutamicacid moiety is a common substructure of biologically important natural products such as monatin [(2S,4S)-2], lycoperdic acid (3), and dysiherbaine (4). To develop methodology for syntheses of these natural products, cycloadditions of nitrone 5 with 2-substituted 2-propen-1-ols 6 and 2-substituted acrylates 8 were investigated. Reactions of nitrone 5 with alcohols
Chiral triaryl phosphates promote the enantioselectiveiodolactonization of 4‐substituted 4‐pentenoic acids to give the corresponding iodolactones in high yields with high enantioselectivity. N‐Chlorophthalimide (NCP) is employed as a Lewis acidicactivator and oxidant of I2 for the present iodolactonization. In combination with 1.5 equivalents of NCP, only 0.5 equivalents of I2 are sufficient to generate