Also in 2006 the group of Masakatsu Shibasaki of the University of Tokyo published a synthesis again bypassing shikimic acid.
An improved method published in 2007 starts with the enantioselective desymmetrization of aziridine 1 with trimethylsilyl azide (TMSN) and a chiral catalyst to the azide 2. The amide group is protected as a BOC group with Boc anhydride and DMAP in 3 and iodolactamization with iodine and potassium carbonate first gives the unstable intermediate 4 and then stable cyclic carbamate 5 after elimination of hydrogen iodide with DBU.
The amide group is reprotected as BOC 6 and the azide group converted to the amide 7 by reductive acylation with thioacetic acid and 2,6-lutidine. Caesium carbonate accomplishes the hydrolysis of the carbamate group to the alcohol 8 which is subsequently oxidized to ketone 9 with Dess-Martin periodinane. Cyanophosphorylation with diethyl phosphorocyanidate (DEPC) modifies the ketone group to the cyanophosphate 10 paving the way for an intramolecular allylic rearrangement to unstable β-allyl phosphate 11 (toluene, sealed tube) which is hydrolyzed to alcohol 12 with ammonium chloride. This hydroxyl group has the wrong stereochemistry and is therefore inverted in a Mitsunobu reaction with p-nitrobenzoic acid followed by hydrolysis of the p-nitrobenzoate to 13.
A second Mitsunobu reaction then forms the aziridine 14 available for ring-opening reaction with 3-pentanol catalyzed by boron trifluoride to ether 15. In the final step the BOC group is removed (HCl) and phosphoric acid added to objective 16.