Chiral Synthesis of Costunolide

Costunolide. a sesquiterpene lactone is isolated from Magnolia Sieboldi. It is known to possess antitumour and anti-inflammatory activities. This compound is synthesized from Ihe easily available decalin dione using the ring cleavage approach to construct the ten-membered ring system. The two keys points in this work are the chiral inductionon the allyl alcohol moiety using Sharpless epoxidation reaction and opening of the eopxide with an organocuprate reagent which leads to a $\alpha$-exomethylene lactone. (omitted)