Carbohydrate chiral-pool approach to four enantiomerically pure 2-naphthylmethyl 3-hydroxy-2-methylbutanoates

d-Glucose, l-xylose, and d- and l-arabinose were sources of chirality to obtain four enantiomerically pure 3-hydroxy-2-methylbutanoic acids, which were reacted with 2-naphthyldiazomethane to furnish their fluorescent 2-naphthylmethyl esters.