Analysis of the structure of manoalide led to the following synthetic strategy. We felt that the sensitive hydroxybutenolide moiety could be constructed from a furan. This synthon for the butenolide should be stable during the course of the synthesis, could be unmasked under selective conditions, and would act as a building block for the pyran ring. The six-membered ring could be assembled by the use of Diels-Alder methods recently developed by ...
