The initial conjugate addition of the organometallic reagent5 to the octalone (1) yielded, after chromatography, a mixture from which two crystalline stereoisomers of ketone 2 were isolated. The major product, stereoisomer 2a> was not epimerized by treatment with methanolic sodium methoxide and was catalytically hydrogenolyzed to yield the known phenyl ketone (7). 28 Both these observations and analogy with the previously studied ...
