An Acid-Catalyzed Epoxide Ring-Opening/Transesterification Cascade Cyclization to Diastereoselective Syntheses of (±)-β-Noscapine and (±)-β-Hydrastine.

An acid-catalyzed stereoselective epoxide ring-opening/intramolecular transesterification cascade cyclization reaction and N-Boc deprotection was found to be a successful strategy to construct the phthalide tetrahydroisoquinoline skeleton in one pot. Based on this strategy, the unified and highly diastereoselective routes for the total syntheses of (±)-β-Noscapine and (±)-β-Hydrastine were exploited.