2?-Methyl taxanes: Synthesis and NMR configurational assignment

Capitalizing on an oxidation-alkylation approach, a non-diastereoselective entry into 2?-methyl taxanes was developed. The issue of configurational assignment at the newly formed side-chain quaternary stereocenter was solved and put into a more general context by integrating information from an alternative diastereoselective synthesis of model compounds and from spectroscopic measurements, critically comparing the J-Based and the Universal NMR Database approaches. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.