A general stereocontrolled, convergent synthesis of oligoprenols that parallels the biosynthetic pathway

A solution is reported to the classic unsolved problem of stereoselective synthesis of all-E oligoprenols, such as E-farnesylfarnesol, by a cationic coupling analogous to the biosynthetic pathway. The simplicity and efficacy of the method, which is outlined in Scheme 1, are demonstrated by the synthesis of a series of all-E oligoprenols from C(20) to C(35) in uniformly excellent overall yield. The success of the approach is due not only to the highly E-stereoselective C-C coupling that forms the oligoprenyl chain but also to the development of efficient syntheses of allylic secondary silanes and E-oligoprenal acetals, and to a selective allylic demethoxylation reaction.