by careful addition of the reaction mixture to a mixture of an organic solvent e g ethyl acetate and water containing a weak acid e g citric acid while keeping the temperature of the mixture below about 50 u00b0 c the remaining workup steps are standard and can be modified according to the reactants used as well as the product generally the organic layer of the quenched mixture is drawn off the aqueous layer is extracted with additional amounts of the organic solvent and the combined organic solvent portions are washed using for example brine saturated sodium bicarbonate and the like dried over an anhydrous drying agent for example magnesium sulfate or sodium sulfate filtered and concentrated b adding a protecting group to convert y u2550 oh to y u2550 o hydroxy protecting group and c transforming the compound wherein x is or 1 nhr 2 or n r 2 or 1 to a compound wherein x is ch 3 in a related aspect the present invention provides a method for the preparation of an epothilone intermediate comprising wherein the subscripts n and m are each independently 0 or 1 indicating the absence or presence of methyl groups at the respective positions x 1a is a member selected from h and ch 3 r 1a is selected from lower alkyl and a hydroxy protecting group and y 1 is a member selected from o and nr 4 wherein r 4 is selected from h lower alkyl and an amino protecting group wherein each r a is independently selected from lower alkyl and cycloalkyl r is a member selected from vinyl allyl 2 buten 1.