Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 15, Issue 24, 2011

During the past decade, asymmetric organocatalysis, in which small chiral organic molecules act as catalytically active species, has grown explosively to become one of the most exciting research areas in current organic chemistry. A variety of chiral organocatalysts and numerous of asymmetric organocatalytic transformations have been developed. This special thematic issue of Current Organic Chemistry aims to hig Read More

Over the last few decades, the catalytic asymmetric Friedel-Crafts alkylation has become a powerful strategy that provides enantioenriched structural motifs of established value in medicinal chemistry or complex target synthesis. While the traditionally chiral Lewis-acid catalyzed Friedel-Crafts alkylation has been extensively reviewed in the literature, we focused this review on the recent advances on organocatalytic Fried Read More

During last decade the field of Organocatalysis emerged as one of the cornerstones of organic asymmetric synthesis. The use of organocatalysis has some advantages such as metal free reactions, environmentally friendly conditions, does not need to use dry solvents or inert atmosphere, avoid the use of protecting groups, etc… For these reasons, several research groups have focused their efforts on the development of n Read More

Phosphines have recently become popular choices as nucleophilic catalysts in many asymmetric reactions, including: diastereoselective reactions, enantioselective reactions and other special type asymmetric reactions, such as kinetic resolution and desymmetrization. This mini-review presents recent advances in the application of nucleophilic phosphine organocatalysts for the preparation of chiral building blocks.

Over the past decade, chiral Lewis base-catalysed cycloadditions has brought about numerous methods for the enantioselective synthesis of carbocycles and heterocycles. This short review covers some of the advances made in the area of absolute stereocontrol in this higher order cycloaddition.

Asymmetric Mannich-type reactions are important organic transformations that provide excellent protocols for the synthesis of optically active nitrogen-containing compounds. This article provides an overview on the development of thiourea-catalyzed asymmetric Mannich or nitro-Mannich reactions including scope, limitations, and applications of different catalytic systems.

In recent years, asymmetric organocatalytic cascade reactions have emerged as a powerful and environmentally friendly tool for the rapid assembly of complex chiral molecules from simple and readily available starting materials in a single process, and have attracted much attention as the advantages of both cascade reactions and organocatalysis are merged. In this context, asymmetric organocatalytic cascade reac Read More