Synthesis of stable isotopically labelled 3-methylfuran-2(5H)-one and the corresponding strigolactones

Conventional synthetic procedures of strigolactones (SLs) involve the independent synthesis of ring ABC and ring D, followed by a coupling of the two fragments. Here we prepared three kinds of stable, isotopically labelled D-ring analogues productively using a facile protocol. Then, a coupling of the D-rings to ring ABC produced three isotope-labelled SL derivatives. Moreover, (+)-D3-2'-epi-1A and (-)-ent-D3-2'-epi-1A with high enantiomeric purity were obtained via chiral resolution.