Heterocyclic Compounds Derived from Ephedrines

Ephedra heterocycles are well known due to their biological activity, and they have been widely used in asymmetric synthesis during the last decades. To our knowledge no review about ephedra heterocycles has appeared in the literature. In this paper, the synthetic methodology to access chiral heterocycles derived from ephedra alkaloids is discussed. Some of them have displayed biological activity and others have been used as asymmetric inductors, clearly the ephedra alkaloids are potential candidates to be used in both areas.