Total synthesis of (+/-)-mycoepoxydiene, a novel fungal metabolite having an oxygen-bridged cyclooctadiene skeleton.

[reaction: see text] The first total synthesis of (+/-)-mycoepoxydiene has been accomplished. A ring-closing olefin metathesis (RCM) approach was employed for the construction of the oxygen-bridged eight-membered bicyclic skeleton. The RCM product was converted to the target natural product featuring the oxidative rearrangement of a furfuryl alcohol introduced as the side chain and the stereoselective 1,2-reduction of a delta-keto-beta,gamma-unsaturated alpha-lactol intermediate.