The spiroketal moiety is an important substructure within many biological natural products. One method to access them is via the oxidative cyclisation of a pendant hydroxyl group on to a pre‐formed pyran. However applications of this methodology have been severely limited by requiring the use of toxic and powerful oxidants, such as lead (IV) tetraacetate or mercuric oxide. Herein we report a novel and high yielding photochemical route to prepare complex spiroketals using a photochemical oxidative approach with mild and non‐toxic reagents and demonstrate the methodology to the synthesis of a number of insect pheromones.

中文翻译：

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氧化光化学环化以获得螺缩酮


螺缩酮部分是许多生物天然产物中的重要子结构。获得它们的一种方法是通过将侧羟基氧化环化到预先形成的吡喃上。然而，由于需要使用有毒和强氧化剂，例如四乙酸铅 (IV) 或氧化汞，该方法的应用受到严重限制。在此，我们报告了一种新颖且高产的光化学路线，使用温和且无毒的试剂，使用光化学氧化方法来制备复杂的螺缩酮，并展示了合成多种昆虫信息素的方法。