2-deoxyribose as a rich source of chiral 5-carbon building blocks

We have developed concise routes to a number of useful chiral 5-carbon synthetic building blocks using readily available O-1-methyl-2-deoxyribose as starting material. Novel transformations include the use of indium triflate to catalyze the oxidation of a methyl furanoside to the corresponding lactone with MCPBA and the Vasella-type fragmentation of a 5-iodo furanoside using chromium(II) chloride when zinc proved ineffective. In addition, 3,4-disubstituted piperidine derivatives were prepared without hydroxyl group protection via a simple reductive amination reaction.