Enantioselective synthesis and absolute configurations of aculeatins A and B

The two naturally occuring, bioactive spiroacetals aculeatins A and B have been synthesized for the first time in enantiopure form using an asymmetric allylation as the only chirality source. A further key step was a stereoselective aldol reaction with remote induction. The absolute configurations of the natural products have been established and the previously assigned relative configurations have been corrected.