Mannich-Michael reactions, reviews

The literally thousands of examples involving the addition of stabilized nucleophiles to activated alkenes and alkynes have spawned many reviews over the years. The Michael reaction has been discussed in detail several times7 and reviews on other related topics, such as annulation8 and Mannich base meth-iodides,9 have also appeared, as have several reviews on nucleophilic additions to activated alkynes.10... 

Other reviews deal with aldol additions of group 1 and 2 enolates,103 direct catalytic asymmetric aldol reactions catalysed by chiral metal complexes,104 the exploitation of multi-point recognition in catalytic asymmetric aldols,105 and recent progress in asymmetric organocatalysis of aldol, Mannich, Michael, and other reactions.106... 

In addition to the side reactions mentioned above, deamination of Mannich bases can occur, especially at elevated temperature, to give a,p-unsaturated derivatives. This route of decomposition of Mannich bases has been exploited as a means of in situ generation of a,p-unsaturated ketones in the Michael reaction and for the direct synthesis of a,3-unsaturated ketones several reviews of the Mannich reaction have discussed aspects of these applications.Recently, a direct one-pot synthesis of a-methylene ketones has been reported involving condensation of ketones with formaldehyde and A -methylaniline tri-fluoroacetate in aptotic solvents. Also, a less direct method has been described in which Mannich bases prepared from 3-keto esters, formaldehyde and dimethylamine are subjected to quatemarization and thermal fragmentation to yield a-methylene ketones.This method is particularly useful for the regios-pecific synthesis of a-methylene ketones because the aminomethylation reaction always takes place at the most activated position flanked by the ketone and ester groups. 

A review of the aza-Diels-Alder reaction suggests that it proceeds via the Mannich-Michael process, as against a concerted mechanism, when using electron-rich dienes. Mannich intermediates being observed is the main argument. Progress in metallo- and organo-catalysis of the transformation is also described. ... 

After the initial two reports of Rh- and Co-catalyzed reductive aldol couplings, further studies did not appear in the literature until the late 1990s. Beyond 1998, several stereoselective and enantioselective reductive aldol reactions were developed, which are catalyzed by a remarkably diverse range of metal complexes, including those based upon Pd, Cu, Ir, and In. In this chapter, transition metal-catalyzed aldol, Michael, and Mannich reactions that proceed via transition metal hydride-promoted conjugate reduction are reviewed. 

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