Total synthesis of ciguatoxins (Figure 1), the causative neurotoxins of ciguatera seafood poisoning,1–4 has been a formidable challenge in organic synthesis, and is expected to have an
impact on studies of the voltage-sensitive sodium ion channel
(VSSC) and the development of an immunoassay, which have
been impeded by the extreme difficulty in isolating ciguatoxins. Thus, chemical synthesis has been the sole realistic solution available for obtaining sufficient quantities of ciguatoxins
for these studies. There was little prospect of success for total
synthesis of ciguatoxins when we first launched our endeavors
towards synthesizing these fascinating and gigantic molecules
in 1989.5 However, our efforts culminated in the first total synthesis of ciguatoxin CTX3C (1)6 in 2001.7,8