Chiral pool approach for the synthesis of functionalized amino acids: synthesis of antiepileptic drug ( R )-lacosamide

An efficient total synthesis of (R)-lacosamide 1 has been achieved from N-Boc-N,O-isopropylidene-l-serinol 2 which could easily be obtained from natural l-serine. Our synthesis of 1 starting from 2 using chiral pool strategy resulted in 54% overall yield.