Abstract: | The reaction of a six‐membered sulfonium ylide 5 with aldehydes or ketones afforded the oxirane derivatives 6a–d as a mixture of cis and trans isomers in excellent yields. In addition, the same reactions, using five‐ or six‐membered cyclic oxosulfonium ylides 7 and 11 , gave the corresponding oxirane derivatives in good yields. Moreover, the reaction of 11 with two equimolar amounts of base and 4‐hexen‐3‐one afforded the cyclooctene oxide derivative 16 with high stereoselectivity in 59% yield via a sequential Michael–Michael‐type addition of the ylide and the resulting enolate ion followed by an intramolecular Corey–Chaykovsky reaction. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 13:216–222, 2002; Published online in Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hc.10022 |