Stereoselective synthesis of zooxanthellactone

The marine polyunsaturated natural product zooxanthellactone was synthesized in six steps and in 11% overall yield from eicosapentaenoic acid. The key synthetic steps were a Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction and a stereoselective semi-reduction. These efforts, together with NMR and optical rotation data, confirmed the reported structure of zooxanthellactone.