Asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation of imines and enamines in natural product synthesis

Abstract

Asymmetric catalytic hydrogenations of imines and enamines with chiral transition-metal complexes bearing chiral ligands are among the most green and powerful approaches for the elaboration of chiral amine structures in organic synthesis. This review focuses on recent applications of asymmetric hydrogenations of imine and enamine substrates in the total syntheses of natural products. These applications include diverse processes involving asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (ATH) and asymmetric hydrogenation (AH) to form key chiral amine motifs in natural products with good efficiency and high-level enantiocontrol.