Cinchona alkaloids Friedel-Crafts alkylation

Asymmetric Friedel-Crafts alkylations of indoles with a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds have been and continue to be of significant interests in synthesizing chiral indole alkaloids. Following the very successful iminium-catalysis with enals by MacMillan s catalyst [47], Chen and Melchiorre have independently reported asymmetric Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indoles with a,P-unsaturated aryl ketones [48] using similar cinchona-alkaloid derived catalysts 77 and 91, respectively (Scheme 5.24) [49]. In both cases, the proper choice of an acidic additive has been shown to be essential for catalytic activity and stereoselectivity. 

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