Facile and stereo-controlled synthesis of 2-deoxynojirimycin, Miglustat and Miglitol

A novel and facile synthesis of a series of the biologically significant iminosugar derivatives including 2-deoxynojirimycin, Miglustat and Miglitol is reported. The synthesis features a strategic double inversion mechanism for securing the desired stereochemistry at C5 position of such glucose-type carbohydrate mimetics, representing a practical and remarkable improvement on the previously reported method that suffers from the loss of the stereo-control during the reaction process.