Macrocyclic skeletal modification approach to the anti-trypanosomal macrolides, actinoallolides†

Herein, we report the construction of 16-membered macrocycles that were designed as intermediates toward the unified synthesis of actinoallolides. Key to our synthesis was the use of Mitsunobu macrocyclization, followed by a sequence of Birch reduction and oxidative C–C cleavage to edit the macrocycle.