Novel synthetic approach to nine-membered diallylic amides: Stereochemical behavior and utility as chiral building block

An efficient approach to nine-membered diallylic cyclic amides having a variety of substituents has been developed. The synthesized amides have stable planar chirality at ambient temperature. The transformation of the enantiomerically enriched amides provides optically active compounds containing stereogenic centers in a stereospecific fashion. As a demonstration of the synthetic utility of the amides, we have synthesized (+)-γ-lycorane using such an optically active amide as a chiral building block.