A general and concise asymmetric synthesis of sphingosine, safingol and phytosphingosines via tethered aminohydroxylation (Publication with Expression of Concern. See vol. 15, pg. 5851, 2017)

A novel, practical and efficient enantioselective synthesis of sphingoid bases, L-threo-[2S,3S]-sphinganine (safingol), L-threo-[2S,3S]-sphingosine, L-arabino-[2R,3S,4R] and L-xylo-[2R,3S,4S]-C-18-phytosphingosine is described. The synthetic strategy features the Sharpless kinetic resolution and tethered aminohydroxylation (TA) as the key steps.