A chemoenzymatic total synthesis of the Amaryllidaceae alkaloid narseronine

A 15-step and fully stereocontrolled total synthesis of the title alkaloid 1 has been accomplished using the enantiomerically pure and enzymatically-derived cis-1,2-dihydrocatechol 2 as starting material. The final and pivotal step involved the intramolecular hetero-Michael addition of secondary amine 16 to a tethered enone moiety followed by trapping of the resulting enolate through its reaction with an adjacent ester residue.