Palladium and a simple chiral amine are used as co-catalysts for the enantioselective conjugate addition of aryl boronic acids to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes (see scheme). The synthetic utility of this co-catalyzed reaction was demonstrated in the short total syntheses of (R)-(-)-curcumene and 4-aryl-2-ones. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
Article first published online: 23 NOV 2012