Enantioselective Total Synthesis of Epothilone A Using Multifunctional Asymmetric Catalyses.

A catalytic version has now been developed for the enantioselective total synthesis of epothilone A (1). The key is the use of multifunctional asymmetric catalyses for a direct aldol reaction and cyanosilylation. This successful approach demonstrated the usefulness of these reactions for the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of complex molecules.