Procedures have been developed for the synthesis of hexasubstituted aromatic rings which are present in many fungal metabolites such as ascofuranone and colletmhlorin D.(3-Bromo- 5-chloro-2, 6-djmethoxy-p-tolyl) acetaldehyde was synthesized from orcinol in eight steps. This aldehyde was converted to 2-bromo-6-chloro-3, 5-dimethoxy-4-(3-methyl-2-butenyl) toluene which was subsequently formylated to afford 3-chloro-4, 6-dimethoxy-2-methyl-5-( ...