Relative Stereochemical Determination and Synthesis of the C17-C25 δ-Lactone Fragment of Hemicalide

Hemicalide is a novel marine metabolite polyketide distinguished by a unique mechanism of action. Because of insufficient quantities of purified material, this natural product has evaded complete stereochemical assignments. Recently, we have determined the relative stereochemistry of the C8-C13 hexad by synthesizing the C1-C13 fragment. Presently, we report the assignment of the C17-C25 delta-lactone fragment. NMR analysis of authentic hemicalide along with a computational conformation study allowed us to reduce the number of putative relative isomers from 16 to 4. Concise syntheses of the four candidate diastereomers were achieved using a common strategy based on a Dias aldehyde allylation reaction, an intramolecular Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons olefination, and a dihydroxylation reaction. Finally, thorough NMR comparisons enabled us to deduce the relative stereochemistry of the C1-C17 fragment with high certainty.