Mini-Reviews in Organic Chemistry - Volume 11, Issue 4, 2014

It is our great pleasure as Guest Editors of the journal ‘Mini-Reviews in Organic Chemistry’ to present you with a ‘mini-hot topic issue’ on nonmetal asymmetric catalysis. Asymmetric catalysis entails the catalytic, selective, and reproducible generation of a given enantiomer of a chiral product from achiral reactants. Leading the quest of asymmetric catalysis is the need of the pharmaceutical, flavors and fragrances, and agroch Read More

The proton is the smallest functional group in organic synthesis and it is extremely challenging to control it in terms of enantioselectivity. In recent years, the use of organocatalysts has witnessed rapid developments and has become the state-of-art in enantioselective protonation of transient enolate. The key prochiral enolate can be generated via various reaction types. Herein we review recent reports of organocatalytic ena Read More

Owing to the important utilities in many areas, the preparation of chiral sulfur-containing compounds has attracted special attention of chemists. As an alternative of the most popular asymmetric sulfur-Michael addition, asymmetric α-sulfenylation has been developed well in recent years. This short review would summarize the advance on asymmetric α-sulfenylation. Two asymmetric protocols, including transition-metal catalys Read More

The use of chiral amines as catalysts for enantioselective synthetic transformations has received tremendous attention from the chemistry community over the last decade. Although stoichiometric enamines have been used as enolate equivalents for about 60 years, the field of catalytic enamine reactions continues to expand. This mode of catalysis is particularly powerful, as it enables the construction of strategic C-C an Read More

The synthesis, chemical properties, transformations, and biological activities of mono- and multi- substituted cyclobutyl- and cyclobutenylphosphonates were broadly discussed in this article review. The synthesis of four-membered ring phosphonates was based either on phosphorylation of already constructed cyclobutyl moiety or on inter- and intramolecular cyclizations of phosphorus containing compoun Read More

In green and sustainable chemistry, 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol is considered as an ideal solvent due to its high ionizing power, strong hydrogen bond donating ability and environmentally friendliness characteristics. This review highlights the use of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol as a solvent, co-solvent and its catalytic potential in various organic transformations.

For several decades, interest in pyrrole derivatives increased due to their pharmaceutical importance, such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-tumor, anti-epileptic, anti-viral, anti-hypertensive, and anti-diabetic agents. These huge therapeutic applications have motivated new efforts in searching for novel derivatives with improved biological activity and diverse applications in pharmaceutical industry. Motivated Read More

Chiral homo-allylic amines have been recognized in biologically active natural products and synthetic medicinal compounds. The most significant aspect of chiral homo-allylic amines relies on their synthetic versatility as chiral building blocks for the construction of a broad range of multi-functional organic compounds. A measure of the value of chiral homoallylic amines in organic synthesis is the large volume of work that Read More