The ideal synthesis is pursued actively by organic chemists since it encompasses the ideas of atom,step,redox-economy,as well as economies of time,labor,resource management,and waste generation.As such,it can also be considered to fall under the banner of"green chemistry".In this lecture,the total syntheses of antimalarial compound decursivine and its biologically inactive sibling serotobenine are presented.1 The present syntheses feature a new cascade Witkop photocyclizatior/elimination/addition sequence,which enabled the expedient synthesis of not only racemic decursivine and serotobenine,but also enantiopure(+)-and(-)-decursivine and a variety of their analogues.2,3 The present syntheses represent the shortest pathway for the total synthesis of decursivine and serotobenine to date.