Anthracycline antibiotics such as daunomycin and adriamycin are clinically important antitumor drugs. Other members of the anthracycline family include 7-con-O-methyl-nogarol, also an antitumor drug, and aquayamycin. Aquayamycin and its glycosides are powerful inhibitors of hydroxylase enzymes including proline hydroxylase, dopamine beta-hydroxylase and tyrosine hydroxylase. A new methodology for the synthesis of anthracycline structures has been uncovered in our laboratory. The method will permit chiral and convergent preparations of the antibiotics listed above as well as their analogs.