Enantioselective Intermolecular Aldol Additions and Related Morita-Baylis-Hillman Processes

Abstract

Since the thriving use of simple (S)-proline as organocatalyst in the intermolecular direct aldol reaction in 2000, new reaction conditions have been investigated with this molecule to overcome the initial reaction inconveniences such as slow reaction rate, high catalyst loading, need of high polar solvents and huge excesses of reagents. At the same time, an arsenal of new catalytic systems have been designed to improve the early reported proline efficiency, increasing the substrate scope of the reaction and facilitating their application to a large scale or natural product synthesis. Throughout this chapter these new inputs for this well-known process as well as the related C-C bond formation Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction, in which the last step of the overall reaction is also an aldol process, will be discussed.