A concise synthesis of patulin from arabinose

Conversion of arabinose (5) to the protected ketone (7), followed by Wittig condensation to (9), acid catalysed cyclisation (to 10), and dehydration, provides a brief synthesis of the fungal metabolite patulin (1), produced by Penicillium and Aspergillus sp. A concise synthesis of the fungal metabolite patulin (1) from arabinose (5), using the enoate (9) as key intermediate is described.