Cinchona ammonium ketene-enolate

Cinchona alkaloids such as 121 possess a nucleophilic quinuclidine structure and can act as versatile Lewis bases to react with ketenes generated in situ from acyl halides in the presence of an add scavenger. By acting as nucleophiles, the resulting ketene enolates can react intermolecularly [53] or intramolecularly [54] with electrophilic C=0 or C=N bonds to deliver formal [2 + 2]-cycloadducts, such as chiral P-lactones or [1-lactams, via aldol (or Mannich)-i intramolecular cydization sequence reactions (Scheme 8.46). The nucleophilic ammonium enolate can also read with energetic... 

In 1982, Wynberg and coworkers discovered the cinchona alkaloid catalyzed enantioselective aldol lactonization of ketenes with chloral or trichloroacetone [35], in which the zwitterionic acyl ammonium enolate provides the carbon nucleophile. This work is probably one of the most important early contributions to enantioselective organocatalysis [36], One drawback associated with this process is the severe substrate limitations. The aldehydes should be highly reactive, presumably due to the relatively limited nudeophilicity of ammonium enolates. Nelson and coworkers first addressed the scope and reactivity problems associated with Wynberg s original protocol by combining a cinchona alkaloid derivative (O-trimethylsilylquinine (12) or O-trimethylsilylquinidine (13)) with a metal Lewis acid as a cocatalyst to... 

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