# Asymmetric Total Synthesis and Structural Reassignment of Nervione

## TL;DR

This paper describes the complete synthesis of a natural compound called nervione and corrects its molecular structure based on new evidence.

## Contribution

The paper provides the first asymmetric total synthesis of nervione and corrects its absolute configuration.

## Key findings

- Nervione was synthesized in 10 steps from resorcinol using ortho-directed strategies and a key diastereoselective reduction.
- Circular dichroism (CD) spectra discrepancies led to the reassignment of nervione’s absolute configuration to (3R, 8S).

## Abstract

We report the asymmetric
total synthesis of optically active nervione
in both (+) and (−) forms, a natural product initially isolated
from Nervilia concolor in 2022. Beginning
with commercially available resorcinol, optically pure nervione was
synthesized in 10 steps, employing a combination of ortho-directed strategies and a crucial late-stage, Lewis acid-mediated,
highly diastereoselective reduction. Discrepancies observed in circular
dichroism (CD) spectra prompted the reassignment of nervione’s
absolute configuration from (3S, 8R) to (3R, 8S).