Cinchona alkaloid motif

Recently, a series of chiral bifunctional thiourea catalysts with cinchona alkaloid motif has been synthesized (Figure 2.20) [103]. After screening a range of... 

Fig. 2.20 Chiral bifunctional thiourea catalyst with cinchona alkaloid motif. O...

As reviewed in this chapter, cinchona alkaloids have played a crucial role in the development of asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis since its advent, and today constitute a privileged structural motif that may be widely utilized for the design of new chiral quaternary ammonium salts. These benefits are due not only to the... 

Consequently, Dehmlow and coworkers modified the cinchona alkaloid structure to elucidate the role of each ofthe structural motifs of cinchona alkaloid-derived chiral phase-transfer catalysts in asymmetric reactions. Thus, the quinoline nucleus of cinchona alkaloid was replaced with various simple or sterically bulky substituents, and the resulting catalysts were screened in asymmetric reactions (Scheme 7.2). The initial results using catalysts 8-11 in the asymmetric borohydride reduction of pivalophenone, the hydroxylation of 2-ethyl-l-tetralone and the alkylation of SchifF s base each exhibited lower enantiomeric excesses than the corresponding cinchona alkaloid-derived chiral phase-transfer catalysts [14]. 

Aminothiourea-prolinal dithioacetal (234), in the presence of PhC02H, can catalyse Michael addition of ketones R CH2COR and aldehydes to nitroalkenes at 3 mol% loading to afford the 3yn-configured products with <99 1 dr and <99% ee under solvent-free conditions at room temperature. The related carbohydrate-derived thiourea is believed to activate both 8-diketones and nitroalkenes via coordination (235) the Michael adducts were obtained in <89% ee " Another variant of the thiourea motif with a cinchona alkaloid scaffold exhibited higher stereocontrol in the same reaction (<98% ee), carried out in MeCN at —40°C ... 

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