Protection of 2-bromoethanol (I) upon treatment with 2-methoxypropene (II) gave a mixture of ketals (III) and (IV). This mixture was used for N-alkylation of 5-bromoindole (V) in the presence of KOH to afford, after ketal hydrolysis, 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-5-bromoindole (VI) (1). Alternatively, compound (VI) was obtained by alkylation of 5-bromoindole (V) with ethylene oxide (VII) in the presence of NaOH in DMSO (2). The hydroxyl group of (VI) was then protected as the silyl ether (VII) by treatment with tert-butyldimethylsilyl chloride. Subsequent lithium-halogen exchange in (VIII) with tert-butyllithium, followed by reaction with bismuth trichloride provided the triindolyl bismuthane (IX) (1, 2). This was oxidized with either benzoyl peroxide (1) or peracetic acid (2) to produce the corresponding di(acyloxy) pentavalent bismuthanes (X).
Arylation of ascomycin (XI) with the pentavalent bismuthanes (X) under catalysis of cupric acetate produced a mixture of the required indolyl ether (XII) and minor amounts of bis(indolyl) ether (XIII). Finally, after desilylation of (XII) and (XIII) by acid treatment in MeOH, the title monoindolyl ether was isolated by column chromatography.