We herein report a serendipitously observed acid mediated rearrangement of monoethylene ketal of 2-methyl-2-(3-methylbut-2-en-1-yl)cyclohex-4-ene-1,3-diones to Dihydrobenzopyran and demonstrated the application of this methodology in the construction of core carbon scaffolds of dimethoxyajacareubin, cariphenone-A and crotamadine. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd