Total synthesis and structural confirmation of ent-galbanic acid and marneral.

By capitalizing on a highly selective Claisen rearrangement, ent-galbanic acid 1 and (+)-marneral 2 have been synthesized. The relative configurations of (+)- 1 and (+)- 2 were unambiguously established by X-ray crystallographic analysis of the precursors 11a and 20, with the absolute configuration ensuing from their derivation from R-pulegone. In this way, the controversial issue of the configuration of galbanic acid was unequivocally settled.