Several new stereoisomers of 3,4,6-trihydroxyazepanes and7-hydroxymethyl-3,4,5-trihydroxyazepanes as well as known3,4,5-trihydroxyazepanes were synthesized as potent glycosidase inhibitors from
D-(-)-quinic acid in an efficientmanner. The key step employs dihydroxylation of protectedchiral 1,4,5-cyclohex-2-enetriols under
RuCl
3/NaIO
4/phosphate buffer (pH 7) condition, followed by reductive aminocyclization. We found the choice of an appropriate protectinggroup to C1-OH of chiral 1,4,5-cyclohex-2-enetriols wouldincrease the yields of cyclization. The preliminary biologicaldata indicate some of these azepanes possess potent inhibitionagainst
-mannosidase and
-fucosidase.