Utilization of the Phenylthio Substituent as a Multipurpose Synthetic Tool. Direct Application to the Enantioselective Construction of (-)-Salsolene Oxide.

The architecturally unprecedented sesquiterpene (-)-salsolene oxide (1) has been synthesized in enantioselective fashion from (R)-(-)-carvone. Generation of the phenylthio-substituted vinyl ketene 4 is followed by intramolecular cyclization to the functionalized cyclobutanone 9. Vinyllithium addition to this intermediate proceeds in that stereocontrolled fashion which enables oxy-Cope rearrangement to operate readily under conditions of kinetic control. After hydride reduction, the desulfurization of 16 proceeds with inversion of bridgehead olefin geometry to deliver 17. This access route to the thermodynamically more stable geometric arrangement permits direct entry to 1. Attention is called specifically to the critical 3-fold function played by a phenylthio group introduced at the outset.