An efficient approach to the asymmetric total synthesis of (-)-anisodine

-Anisodine (L-6,7-epoxy-3-tropyl-alpha-hydroxytropate), which was isolated from the medicinal plant Scopolia tanguticus Maxim, was the first efficiently prepared using 6-beta-acetyltropine as the starting material via a key step of the Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation (AD). The intermediate compounds 10 and 11 showed promising cholinergic activity. (c) 2006 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.