An efficient approach to the asymmetric total synthesis of (–)-anisodine

–Anisodine (l-6,7-epoxy-3-tropyl-α-hydroxytropate), which was isolated from the medicinal plant Scopolia tanguticus Maxim, was the first efficiently prepared using 6-β-acetyltropine as the starting material via a key step of the Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation (AD). The intermediate compounds 10 and 11 showed promising cholinergic activity.