Preparation of Polysubstituted Isochromanes by Addition of <i>ortho</i>-Lithiated Aryloxiranes to Enaminones

The reaction of <i>ortho</i>-lithiated aryloxiranes with various enaminones straightforwardly affords new functionalized isochromanes as mixtures of two epimeric stereoisomers in reasonable to very good yields (50–90%). The two diastereomers, which show a high structural variability, can be easily separated by column chromatography