Cover Picture: Asymmetric Synthesis of Both Enantiomers of Disparlure (Chin. J. Chem. 1/2012)

The cover picture shows a new and expeditious approach for the synthesis of disparlure and its enantiomer. The disparlure is the sex pheromone of the Gypsy moth Porthetria dispar L., which is used to monitor the Gypsy moth and protect plants against these pests. Starting from propargyl alcohol, and on the basis of Zhou's modified Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation, the sex pheromone of the Gypsy moth, disparlure and its enantiomer have been synthesized, each in six steps, with overall yields of 29% and 27% (ee>98%), respectively. The use of the sequential coupling tactic renders the method flexible, which is applicable to the synthesis of other cis-epoxy pheromones. More details are discussed in the article by Zheng et al. on page 23–28.