A new concept for the biosynthesis of officinalic acid (1), a C30-metabolitefrom the fungus Laricifomes officinalis, had led to an efficient synthesis of the racemic form of this compound. The key step involves a Diels-Alder dimerization of the readily available enone acid (±)-3, which furnishes (±)-officinalic acid in 420/0 yield. A byproduct formed in the same reaction in 10% yield has been named isoofficinalic acid and shown by spectroscopic techniques to possess structure 11
