Carbohydrate-based approach to four enantiomerically pure 2-naphthylmethyl 3-hydroxy-2-methylbutanoates

Abstract Chiral pool approach using d -glucose, l -xylose, and d - and l -arabinoses was used to obtain four stereoisomeric 3-hydroxy-2-methylbutanoic acids with well defined configurations. The acids were isolated as fluorescent 2-naphthylmethyl esters after reaction with 2-naphthyldiazomethane.