Enantioselective Total Synthesis of (-)-Incarviatone A

We report herein the first total synthesis of (-)-incarviatone A (1) in 14 steps starting from commercially available inexpensive phenylacetic acid (9). Our early stage synthesis relies on the scalable and sequential C-H functionalitation to rapidly assemble the indanyl dialdehyde framework. Further biomimetic cascade strategy allows us to obtain the natural product in a onepot operation. We also conduct detailed mechanistic studies and disclose all the possible intermediates and isomers formed during the biomimetic cascade process.