A new route to diverse 1-azasugars from N-Boc-5-hydroxy-3-piperidene as a common building block.

A new general method for the synthesis of a variety of 1-azasugars with a nitrogen atom at the anomeric position is described. The readily available chiral N-Boc-5-hydroxy-3-piperidene 3 is transformed to isofagomine (2), homoisofagomine (13), and 5'-deoxyisofagomine (14) via stereoselective epoxidation and regioselective ring-cleavage in a highly stereocontrolled manner. In addition, the synthesis of all four stereoisomers of 3,4,5-trihydroxypiperidines (18-21) classified as 1-azasugar-type glycosidase inhibitors was stereoselectively achieved from the (chiral) piperidene 3.