A convenient synthesis of new enantiomerically pure trihydroxypyrrolizidines using l-erythrose glycosylhydroxylamine as a masked acyclic chiral nitrone

A route has been developed for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure trihydroxylated pyrrolizidines starting from l-erythrose glycosylhydroxylamine. The latter acts as a masked acyclic nitrone and reacts diastereoselectively from its Re-face with methyl acrylate to give the corresponding isoxazolidines, which after reductive N–O cleavage are recyclized to trihydroxypyrrolizidines via a Mitsunobu condensation.