Highly stereoselective synthesis of mupirocin H

A highly diastereoselective and efficient convergent synthesis of mupirocin H starting from (+)-(R)-Roche ester was achieved. Grubbs cross metathesis was employed as the key step in the pathway to generate an important E-olefin intermediate. Other processes utilized in the route include a Pd-catalysed stereoselective substitution reaction of a cis epoxide, Sharpless epoxidation followed by Red-Al promoted epoxide ring opening, and Seebach methylation and a TEMPO/BAIB mediated oxidation-lactonization sequence. Finally, we observed that mupirocin H inhibits SbnE, a synthetase required for staphyloferrin B biosynthesis.