The first synthesis of the polyunsaturated amino alcohol natural product obscuraminol A is reported. This stereoselective synthesis was based on an anti- and enantioselectiveorganocatalyzed Henry reaction followed by a chemoselective SmI2-mediated reduction that affected only the nitro-group of the Henry product. These efforts yielded obscuraminol A where the configuration of the all-Z skipped double
obscurum from Tarifa Island (Cádiz, Spain) has led to the characterization of six new unsaturated 2-amino-3-ol compounds, the obscuraminols A-F. Five of them, the obscuraminols B–F, were isolated as their corresponding diacetyl derivatives. Their structures were established by spectroscopic analysis, their relative configurations by NOEDS study of oxazolidinone derivatives, and their absolute configurations