Recent advances in catalytic enantioselective synthesis of vicinal amino alcohols

Enantiopure vicinal amino alcohols and their derivatives are widely found in natural products, pharmaceuticals, bioactive compounds, and functional materials. They also play a crucial role as chiral ligands and catalysts in asymmetric synthesis. Consequently, the synthesis of chiral vicinal amino alcohols has remained a key focus in synthetic chemistry, with an expansion of efficient strategies developed in recent years. These include asymmetric (transfer) hydrogenation, borrowing hydrogen, aminohydroxylation, ring opening of epoxides and aziridines, nucleophilic addition, reductive coupling, radical reactions and so on. Although some classical approaches have been reviewed in key accounts, novel synthetic strategies introduced in the past two decades have yet to be comprehensively reviewed. This review aims to provide a thorough overview of recent advancements in the synthesis of chiral vicinal amino alcohols, with a particular focus on strategic developments over the past two decades.