Two diastereomers of the title compound were synthesized through an enantioselective route, with the stereogenic center at the C‐2 derived from a commercially available reagent and the one at the C‐4 installed via Evans asymmetric aldol condensation. By comparison of 1H and 13C NMR spectra as well as optical rotation, the configuration of the natural product was as assigned as (‐2R,4R). Some interesting issues such as suppression of the undesired yet dominating formation of cyclic ethers associated with deprotection of a TBS protected terminal hydroxyl group and the previously unknown differences in 1H NMR and IR between the end product separated by normal phase chromatography and that by reverse phase chromatography are also presented.