[Reaction: see text] A stereocontrolled convergent synthesis of the annonaceous acetogenin pyranicin (1) is presented. Asymmetric Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons (HWE) reactions were used to access keyintermediates. The tetrahydropyran derivative 2 was obtained via an asymmetric desymmetrization of the meso-dialdehyde 6, and the butenolide fragment was constructed using a stereoconvergent reaction sequence
[structure: see text] A stereocontrolled convergent synthesis of the annonaceous acetogenin pyragonicin (1) is presented. The keyintermediates were accessed using asymmetric Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons (HWE) methodology. A reagent controlled zinc-mediated stereoselective coupling, joining the two highly functionalized intermediates 3 and 4, then provided the core structure.