Hydroxylactones of type A are found in some natural products, including (-)-muricatacin and (-)-iso-cladospolide B. The biological activities of these lactones depend on the length of the alkyl side chain, and also on the absolute configuration of the stereogenic centers within the side chain. [1] These compounds can be found in plants as well as in marine or soil fungi. For our part, we were particularly interested in synthesizing (-)-muricatacin and (-)-iso- ...