Antimycins are a large family of natural antibiotics featuring a nine-membered dilactone ring. The name of antimycin could be traced back to the late 1940’s. Since then, new antimycins are continuingly added to the list of this interesting class of compounds, which now already includes as many as 26 closely related individuals. Probably due to structural determination was mainly done on antimycin A₃, synthetic endeavors up to now are carried out exclusively on the A₃ (mostly A_3b). The enantioselective syntheses spread over the last decades are reviewed, with the merits and shortcomings briefly discussed.

Key words: enantioselective synthesis, ring-closure, lactone, antibiotics