Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 7, Issue 17, 2003

It is indeed a pleasure for me to begin the third term as a guest editor for Current Organic Chemistry: Asymmetric Synthesis. Volume 7 of the series provides four contributions concerned with stereoselective and enantioselective synthesis. Two of the chapters address synthetic methodology, while the other two focus on catalysis. Professor Rainer Mahrwald of the Institute for Chemistry at the Humboldt University of Berlin cont Read More

The classic Tishchenko reaction embodies dimerization of aldehydes to their corresponding esters via a formal oxidation-reduction sequence, whereas the classic aldol-Tishchenko reaction involves the trimerization of enolizable aldehydes. In an aldol-Tishchenko reaction, two aldehyde molecules undergo addition to form an aldol adduct which is subsequently reduced by a third aldehyde to yield 1,3-diol monoesters, with Read More

Organoboron chemistry continues to make an ever-increasing impact on general methodology in synthetic organic chemistry. Over the recent years advances in the reduction, hydroboration, and coupling protocols have served to broaden the synthetic chemists' arsenal with methods illustrating the utility of boron. If one were to include boron enolate chemistry in conjunction with the previously mentioned areas this wo Read More

The current review presents a systematic outline of the types of chiral bipyridines known to-date, in particular the methods of their preparation and their application in selected catalytic enantioselective processes. The first part deals with the main structural types of chiral bipyridines, based on the topological origin of chirality of these systems, namely central, axial, planar, and helical, or any combination of these. The sp2 nitrog Read More

The efficiency and selectivity of Rh(I)-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of dehydroaminoacids have been investigated using water-soluble organometallic catalysts prepared from three readily available carbohydrates, trehalose, D-salicin [2-(hydroxymethyl)phenyl β-D-glucopyranoside] and D-mannitol. Bisdiarylphosphinite- Rh(I) complexes prepared from trehalose give moderate selectivity in hydrogenations in aqueous Read More