Annulation of pyrrole: application to the synthesis of indolizidine alkaloids

The nucleophilicity of pyrrole has been exploited to rapidly assemble the bicyclic skeleton of the indolizidine alkaloids. The key sequence is the annulation of a second ring onto pyrrole from a γ-lactone and has been exploited in the synthesis of the natural products (±)-monomorine and (±)-indolizidine 209D.