Synthesis of polyhydroxy cavitands and intramolecular inclusion of their octaester derivatives

A facile and efficient synthesis of novel cavitands containing eight hydroxyl groups was accomplished in eight steps beginning from commercially available resorcinol and the corresponding aldehydes. The synthesis combines two classical approaches to cavitand chemistry and yields the target octol cavitand molecules in gram quantities with no chromatographic separations. A variety of octaester cavitand derivatives were then prepared from the parent octols and their spectral properties are reported.