In the course of applying the diosphenol Claisen rearrangement'to natural products synthesis, we desired to deoxygenate C-allylated diosphenols in the sense ac (Figure 1). Reported sequences2 for effecting this transformation involve a catalytic hydrogenation step incompatible with preservation of the allyl group. In our hands lithium/ammonia reduction of diosphenol methyl ethers gave predominantly a-methoxy ketones; similar reduction of ...