Total syntheses of (+)-zampanolide and (+)-dactylolide exploiting a unified strategy

The first total syntheses of (+)-zampanolide (1) and (+)-dactylolide (2), members of a new class of tumor cell growth inhibitory macrolides, have been achieved. Key features of the unified synthetic scheme included the stereocontrolled construction of the cis-2,6-disubstituted tetrahydropyran via a modified Petasis-Ferrier rearrangement, a highly convergent assembly of the macrocyclic domain, and, in the case of zampanolide, a Curtius rearrangement/acylation tactic to install the N-acyl hemiaminal. The complete relative and absolute stereochemistries for both (+)-zampanolide and (+)-dactylolide were also assigned, albeit tentatively in the case of (+)-zampanolide (1).