Verticilide (
1) is a 24-membered cyclic depsipeptide isolated from the culture broth of
Verticillium sp. FKI-1033. It inhibits ryanodine bindingto ryanodine receptor (RyR) and has insecticidal activity. The stereochemistry of 2-hydroxyheptanoic acid in verticilide was elucidated bychiral HPLC analysis of the degradation product
6 and synthetic (+) and (-)-
6. We also describe the practical total synthesis of verticilide.