Total synthesis of incarvilleatone and incarviditone: insight into their biosynthetic pathways and structure determination.

A concise biomimetic total synthesis of incarvilleatone and incarviditone is achieved in one pot via the highly stereoselective hetero- and homodimerization of (±)-rengyolone, respectively. The structure of incarviditone is revised on the basis of spectroscopic and computational evidence.