Synthesis of stable isotopically labelled 3-methylfuran-2(5H)-one and the corresponding strigolactones

Conventional synthetic procedures of strigolactones (SLs) involve the independent synthesis of ring ABC and ring D, followed by a coupling of the two fragments. Here we prepared three kinds of stable, isotopically labelled D‐ring analogues productively using a facile protocol. Then, a coupling of the D‐rings to ring ABC produced three isotope‐labelled SL derivatives. Moreover, (+)‐D3‐2′‐epi‐1A and (−)‐ent‐D3‐2′‐epi‐1A with high enantiomeric purity were obtained via chiral resolution. We developed a convenient method to synthesize three kinds of stable, isotopically labelled D‐ring analogues for subsequent production of isotope‐labelled strigolactones. With this simple and universal method, three labelled 5‐deoxystrigols (D3‐1, 13C‐1 and D313C‐1) were synthesized.