Synthesis of unit-B of cryptophycin-24 via Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation

A synthetic pathway for the synthesis of unit-B of cryptophycin-24 has been developed using Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation as the key step. This study shows that direct azidation of α-hydroxy acid ester using diphenylphosphoryl azide is beneficial to asymmetric synthesis of α-amino acid without the loss of chirality during the transformation.