Development of a concise and diversity-oriented approach for the synthesis of plecomacrolides via the diene-ene RCM.

[reaction: see text] A concise synthesis of the core structures of plecomacrolide with ring sizes varying from 16 to 19 atoms was achieved for the first time by the diene-ene ring-closing olefin metathesis reaction. This approach should allow access to the structurally diverse analogues of plecomacrolide.