Yes it has been tried several times with somewhat inconclusive results. 90% of the results where negative though. The synth works AFAIK for phenylpropene, but per my immediate recollection theres something about the MD bridge that makes it rearrange to MDP1Pol.
Try using the search engine for a bit. There has only been one chap whos ever been positive about it... i think it was tboc or a similar name. But he dissapeared before actually ingesting some product made in that fashion, so most bees agree that he left in shame because of failure
Go for the more established routes unless you
really want to be innovative and figure out
why oh why it does not work.
Regards
Bandil