An Efficient Synthesis of Natural Tribolure

n efficient synthesis of natural tribolure has been achieved through an asymmetric methylation as a key step. Natural tribolure is a mixture of four stereoisomers, so racemic 2-methylbutan-1-ol was used as starting material. After a C5+C4 strategy and then a mixed Evan’s template inductive methylation, the key intermediate was obtained. Finally, the natural product tribolure (4:4:1:1 of stereoisomers, respectively) was obtained in 10 linear steps and in 34.2% overall yield.