The retro-synthesis analysis of compound 1 is shown Scheme 1. It was envisioned that (+)-crassalactone A (1) could be synthesized from 2 by cis hydrogenation, functional group transformations, elaboration, and lactonization. While in turn 2 could be originated from a,b-dihydroxy ester 3 which could be derived from the commercially available (R)-mandelic acid 4 (Scheme 1).