An expeditious, bidirectional synthesis of furofuranones: a new application of Morita–Baylis–Hillman adducts

A concise, flexible approach of general utility to the furo[3,2-b]furanones from readily available Morita–Baylis–Hillman adducts is delineated. In an expeditious variant of this approach, a four-step cascade process is executed in a one-pot operation to generate the furofuranoid framework containing two quaternary centers.