Enantioselective total synthesis of (+)-digitoxigenin

An enantioselective total synthesis of (+)-digitoxigenin is described. This total synthesis is accomplished in a convergent manner using two chiral fragments prepared via the catalytic asymmetric intramolecular cyclopropanation and baker’s yeast mediated reduction developed by us, respectively. This convergent synthesis would be useful for preparing some new derivatives of digitoxigenin for SAR studies and could be applied for the total synthesis of other cardenolides left unprepared.