1 Laboratoire de Synthèse et Méthodologie Organiques, CNRS UMR 5181, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and Ecole Supérieure de Chimie, Physique, Electronique de Lyon, Villeurbanne, France.
[reaction: see text] We describe a convergent approach to soraphen A, 1, that involves coupling of two fragments by an aldol condensation-olefin metathesis sequence. This route permits rapid access to congeners of 1.