An improved and scalable
synthesis of orthogonally protected d-glucosamine and d-galactosamine building blocks from
inexpensive d-glucosamine has been developed. The key reaction
is an inversion/migration step providing access to a fully orthogonal
protecting group pattern, which is required for microbial oligosaccharide
synthesis. The method can be carried out on a multigram scale as several
of the reactions can be purified by crystallization to give anomerically
pure products