desymmetrization of cyclic anhydrides is carried out using dihydroxy compounds. A mild route to synthesize fused saturated/unsaturated macrocyclic tetralactones with different ring sizes (20-34) having a wide variety of spacers is described. The structure is confirmed by the representative single-crystal X-ray analysis. The multiple reduction of unsaturated macrocyclic tetralactones is also illustrated. This method
A facile and efficient route to synthesize macrocyclictetralactones with different ring sizes having a wide variety of spacers is described. The application of ring-closing metathesis for the synthesis of macrocyclictetralactones is demonstrated with many examples in excellent yield. The representative structure of macrocyclictetralactones is characterized by X-ray crystallography.