methylimidazole 1 6 ml 20 27 mmol was added and after stirring at u2212 5 u00b0 c for 30 mins and room temperature for 1 hour 2 ml of methanol was added the mixture was washed sequentially with water 30 ml 5 citric acid 30 ml and brine 10 ml the organic phase was dried na 2 so 4 and the solvent was removed under reduced pressure purification was achieved with a 1 1 mixture of etoac hexane to afford the product as a clear colorless oil 1 1 g 24 yield hplc showed the product as a 1 1 mixture of disastereomers having a purity of 97 1 h nmr 300 mhz cdcl 3 u03b4 1 11 s 3h ch 3 1 27 1 39 and 1 40 2 ss 3h ch 3 1 41 overlapping d 3h j 1 2 hz chch 3 3 55 m 2h ch 2 3 60 m 1h ch 2 3 63 m 1h ch 3 66 and 3 68 2 ss 3h coch 3 3 70 and 3 74 2 ss 3h coch 3 3 78 m 1h ch 4 03 m 1h ch 4 17 m 1h ch 7 16 and 7 35 and 7 40 2 ms 5h ph expected mol wt 474 18 observed mol wt 475 03 m h the compounds shown in the table below were prepared according to the synthetic procedures outlined in examples 1 and 2 using the appropriate starting materials sj16 is a strain of escherichia coli that requires addition of pantothenic acid to proliferate i e it has a mutation such that pantothenic acid is inactive thus it serves as a useful assay in determining whether a compound can rescue an organism deficient in pank the cause.