Facile and Large Scale Synthesis of Diverse 4-O-Protected 2,3-O-Isopropylidene-D-erythrose

The aldehyde functionalities, similar to that of erythrose moiety, have attracted the synthetic chemists as it permits convenient addition of a lot of other functional groups thereby allowing diversified organic molecules. On the other hand, the hydroxy functional groups, similar to 4-hydroxy group of erythrose, are also interesting to connect other groups for getting diversity in the structures. The additional scope of convenient generation of glycol moiety by the release of the 2,3-O-protective isopro-pyledene group stimulated considerable interests in biosynthetic and pharmacological studies, as well as in the total synthesis of natural compounds.6 Moreover, the scope of simple conversion of the configuration from cis to trans may provoke additional synthetic interests to the researchers as this type of conversion is already in use. Thus 4-O-protected 2,3-O-isopropylidene-D-erythrose appears to be an important chiral building block for the synthetic and medicinal chemists