Metatheses are very useful synthetic tool for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds and their popularityis due to the facile access of the required catalyst for those reactions and also to the ease to performthem. So far, these reactions have found many for the total synthesis of natural products.The aurisides A and B are natural products and have been isolated from the sea hare Dolabella Auricularia in 1996. These macrolides have shown significant cytotoxicity with IC50 values againstHeLaS3 cervical cancer cells of 0.17 and 1.2 μg/mL respectively.We have first developed an access to the C1-C9 fragment of these compounds using the crossmetathesis reaction as a key step. A study for the formation of the macrocyclic core of the aurisides,using a sequential ring closing metathesis / transannular ketalization process was then developed. Thismethodology was first performed on unfonctionnalized substrates and allowed the synthesis ofmacrolactone analogs. It was then further applied on a stereocontrolled synthesis of the aurisideswithout the side chain attached on carbon C13.Finally, the cross metathesis reaction was also combined in a tandem process with a hydrogenation reaction for the enantioselective synthesis of pentadecyl-6-hydroxydodecanoate, the major componentof essantial oil Ylang-Ylang, and is also used in traditional medical treatment against cholera.
