Organocatalytic reductions chiral phosphoric acids

A successful asymmetric organocatalytic based C=0 reduction with the Hantzsch ester was not reported until very recently. Terada and Toda developed a relay catalysis that combined Rh(ll) and a chiral phosphoric acid catalyst in a one-pot reaction (Scheme 32.15). In this reaction sequence, a rhodium carbene (I) forms in the first step and is followed with an intramolecular cyclization to afford carbonyl ylide intermediate II or oxidopyrylium III. These intermediates are protonated by 7 to yield the chiral ion pair between isobenzopyrylium and the conjugate base of 7 (IV). Intermediate IV is further reduced in situ by Hantzsch ester Id to produce the isochroman-4-one derivative 67, which is finally trapped with benzoyl chloride to afford the chiral product 68. Surprisingly, the reaction sequence proceeds well to give racemic product even without the addition of chiral 7, while giving rise to the desired product with high enantioselectivity in the presence of chiral Br0nsted acid 7 [38]. 

Later on, the Rueping group reported an organocatalytic enantioselective reduction of pyridine 180 (Scheme 17.30) [74], according to the procedure described by Bohlmann and Rahtz [75]. The key step in the synthesis of decahydroquinolines from the pumiliotoxin family involved Hantzsch dUiydropyridine 172 as the hydride source and involved BINOL-phosphoric acid 181 as a chiral Br0nsted acid catalyst... 

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