Abstract
Taxodione 9a has received considerable attention since its isolation1 presumably due largely to its anti-tumoral activity2 and various syntheses of this extended quinone have been published3. Since several laboratories have recently reported their work in this area we feel obliged to describe our own findings. We wished to demonstrate that our synthetic approach to coleons U, C and B4 involving para-quinonoid intermediates could be made more general by extending the method to other systems which would necessitate passing via ortho-quinones. Taxodione offered us such an opportunity.