Synthesis of anisomycin. Part I. The stereospecific synthesis of N-benzoyl-2-(p-methoxybenzyl)-3-hydroxy-4-carboxamido pyrrolidine and the absolute configuration of anisomycin
L-Tyrosine was converted stereospecifically to N-benzoyl-2-(p-methoxybenzyl)-3-hydroxy-4-cyanopyrrolidine (10) which had a specific optical rotation [Formula: see text]. Anisomycin was converted also to N-benzoyl-2-(p-methoxybenzyl)-3-hydroxy-4-cyanopyrrolidine (16) which had a specific rotation [Formula: see text]. The infrared spectra of the synthetic compound and the derivative of anisomycin were superimposable with each other. This result showed that the absolute configuration of the three asymmetric centers in (10) of synthetic origin were 2S, 3S, 4S, and those in (16) were 2R, 3R, 4R. Thus, anisomycin should have the absolute stereochemistry 2R, 3S, 4S as depicted in the structure (2). Hydrolysis of the hydroxy nitriles (8) and (10) gave an identical amide (3) which should have the absolute stereochemistry 2S, 3S, 4R as shown in structure (3).