Total synthesis of a protected form of sphingofungin E using the [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of an allylic thiocyanate as the key reaction.

An approach to the stereocontrolled synthesis of the protected form of sphingofungin E (32) starting from the known protected d-glucose derivative 3 is described herein. For the construction of a tetrasubstituted carbon atom that is substituted with nitrogen, the [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of thiocyanate 8 was employed. Subsequent functional group interconversions afforded the highly functionalized fragment, allylic bromide 26.