CeCl3×7H2O—NaI Catalyzed Intramolecular Addition Reactions of 7-Hydroxy-1,3-dienes: A Facile Approach to Hexahydrobenzofurans and Tetrahydrofurans.

Abstract CeCl3·7H2O–NaI effectively catalyzed intramolecular cyclization of cyclic 7-hydroxy-1,3-dienes, yielding hexahydrobenzofurans in diastereoselective fashion. This cyclization has been applied to synthesize tetrahydrofurans from acyclic 7-hydroxy-1,3-dienes.