Total synthesis and biological evaluation of (-)-pectinatone employing a methyl-branched wax ester as key building block.

Unnatural (-)-pectinatone ((-)-3) was prepared in five steps starting from the highly methyl-branched wax ester 4, employing bromination of the ester enolate and subsequent base-induced elimination to the enoate 6 as the key step. Both (-)-3 and the amides 8b and 8c, which were isolated as by-products in the reaction sequence, displayed antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity.