Previously, one of the present authors reported, during the course of his synthetic studies of aucubin, 1) the synthesis of 2-(2'-hydroxyethyl) cyclopentanone* 2 (V) as an intermediate in the syntheses of fivemembered cyclic ketals. In the present investigation, we attempted the synthesis of V from 2-cyclopentylethanol (I) by the Barton reaction2) according to the following scheme:
