Synthesis of saramycetic acid

The first reported synthesis of saramycetic acid, a degradation product of the complex thiopeptide antibiotic cyclothiazomycin, is achieved in nine steps and 11% overall yield from diethoxyacetonitrile by a strategy, which incorporates two Hantzsch thiazole syntheses using thioamides prepared from the corresponding nitriles without the use of gaseous H₂S. The synthetic material was transformed to methyl saramycetate, which had spectroscopic properties in excellent agreement with the literature data.