Reduction ephedrine-borane

In 1969, Fiaud and Kagan[U1 tested ephedrine boranes but achieved only 3.6-5% enantiomeric excess in the reduction of acetophenone. Itsuno et a/.[121 reported in 1981 an interesting enantioselective reduction of a ketone using an amino alcohol-borane complex as a catalyst. Buono[131 investigated and developed the reactivity of phosphorus compounds as ligands in borane complexes for asymmetric hydrogenation. 

The first attempt to use a chiral ligand to modify borane was Kagan s attempt at enantioselective reduction of acetophenone using amphetamine-borane and desoxy-ephedrine-borane in 1969 [18]. However, both reagents afforded 1-phenyl ethanol in <5% ee. The most successful borane-derived reagents are oxazaborolidines, introduced by Hirao in 1981, developed by Itsuno, and further developed by Corey several years later (reviews [19,20]). Figure 7.2 illustrates several of the Hirao-Itsuno and Corey oxazaborolidines that have been evaluated to date. All of these examples are derived from amino acids by reduction or Grignard addition. Hirao... 

---