Synthesis of anti and syn hydroxy-iso-evoninic acids

The first synthesis of hydroxy-iso-evoninic acid (2), a pyridyl diacid found as a macrodilactone bridging ligand in bioactive Celastraceae sesquiterpenoid-based natural products, has been achieved in 9 steps and an overall yield of 26%. The synthesis utilizes a benzilic ester rearrangement (BER) and a late stage benzylic oxidation to give access to all four stereoisomers whose absolute stereochemistry was assigned following chromatographic separation and anomalous dispersion X-ray crystallography.