Cover Picture (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 21/1994)

The cover picture shows probably the most densely oxygenated complex fragment of a natural product yet synthesized—C 10 H 12 O 11 ! The central triol–triacid “core” (space‐filling model at the top)of the fungal metabolite zaragozic acid A/squalestatin S1(structural formula and space‐filling model at the bottom) is depicted. Showing unprecedented promise as a medicinally usefull inhibitor of squalene synthase (the enzyme controlling the first committed step in the biosynthesis of cholesterol), zaragozic acid A has attracted much attention in biological and chemical cirles. The synthesis of the central core and tthe first total synthesis of zaragozic acid A/squalestatin S1–another race is over—are described by K. C. Nicolaou et al. on p. 2184ff, 2190ff. (Red: oxygen, black: carbon, white: hydrogen; photograph: L. Gomez‐Paloma, The Scripps Research Institute)