Practical synthesis of an enantiomerically pure synthon for the preparation of mevinic acid analogs

We report an alternative synthesis of 1 that utilizes commercially available (S)-1-phenethylamine as the source of chirality and can be used for the large-scale preparation of 1. Reaction of anhydride 4 with (S)-1-phenethylamine in the preence of triethylamine with toluene as solvent (−78°C, 4.5 h) gave a 79:21 mixture of diastereomeric acids 8a (1: title compounds)