A short synthetic route to (-)-and (+)-bulgecinine, the amino acid moiety of the bulgecins was achieved from the readily available nonchiral pool starting material cis-2-butene-1,4-diol in which a Claisen orthoester rearrangement and a Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation were used as the key steps. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.