Expeditious synthesis of nicotianamine and 2′-deoxymugineic acid

A simple and efficient method of synthesizing nicotianamine 4 and 2′-deoxymugineic acid 3 was devised. We employed thioamide as an intermediate and the title compounds (4 and 3) were afforded via chemoselective reduction of the thioamides in 33% overall yield through 7 steps and 30% overall yield through 8 steps, respectively.