Efficient synthesis of enantiomeric pairs of thiolactomycin and its 3-demethyl derivative

Starting with commercially available tiglic aldehyde, the title synthesis was achieved by employing deconjugative asymmetric α-sulfenylation of the chiral 3-(α,β,γ,δ-unsaturated acyl)-2-oxazolidinone with a methanethiosulfonate as a key step.