dialdehyde (crocetindialdehyde). Up to the present, little additional chemical or biological information has accumu- lated in the primary literature for either compound.18 In the current study, the original synthetic design by Kjøsen and Liaaen-Jensen was used as a guide to generate lycophyll by total synthesis. Retrosynthetic analysis of the target xanthophyll revealed an efficient methodology utilizing the commercially available materials geranyl acetate, a protected form of geraniol (C10), and crocetindialdehyde (C20). The concise total synthesis of lycophyll was realized in eight synthetic steps (Schemes 1 and 2). Synthetic high- lights include an endgame double-Wittig olefination that successfully formed the target C40 scaffold while generating a mixture of geometric isomers (Scheme 2). The isomeric mixture was then effectively deconvoluted to yield one primary target, all-trans lycophyll. Previous work by us and collaborators have shown that targeted derivatization of carotenoids can successfully in- crease the aqueous dispersibility of the highly lipophilic natural scaffolds.19-23 These compounds have demonstrated