Combined Lewis acid catalysts in shotgun process: a convenient synthesis of the female sex pheromone of the red-bollworm moth

The combined use of Lewis acid and distannoxane catalysts gives rise to a new variant of the shotgun process. The unwanted acetylation of a secondary homoallyl alcohol by the former catalyst is suppressed through hybridization with the latter resulting in one-pot aldehyde allylation and primary alcohol acetylation of ω-hydroxy alkanal without protection/deprotection procedures.