Synt'hetic effort's directed t'oward the gibberellins [gibberellic acid (1)] have led to known gibberellin^,^ degradation product's t'here~ f,~ and gibbane synth0ns. j Our interest in this problem lay in devising an efficient synt'hetic route to hexahydrofluorenones 7a and 7b, which could in turn lead to tetracyclic gibbane synthons.
