Oxygen-containing heterocyclic systems are important structures in organic chemistry because of theirpresence in many biologically active compounds. In this work, a Lewis acid-catalyzed cyclization ofethenetricarboxylate derivatives
1 with substituted propargyl alcohols to give methylenetetrahydrofuranswas investigated. Reaction of
1 and
-silicon-substituted propargyl alcohols
4 with ZnBr
2 at 80-110
Cled to (
Z)-silicon-substituted products stereoselectively. Reaction of
1 and
-ester-substituted propargylalcohol
7 in the presence of various Lewis acids gave ester-substituted methylenetetrahydrofuransstereoselectively. Interesting Lewis acid dependency on stereoselectivity for the reaction of
7 was found.Reaction of
-substituted propargyl alcohols also gave cyclized products.