A Highly Enantioselective Brønsted Acid Catalyzed Cascade Reaction: Organocatalytic Transfer Hydrogenation of Quinolines and their Application in the Synthesis of Alkaloids

A categorical success: A Brønsted acid catalyzed cascade transfer hydrogenation provides direct access to 2-aryl- and 2-alkyl-substituted tetrahydroquinolines with excellent enantioselectivities under mild conditions and using very low amounts of catalyst (see scheme). The best results were achieved with the binol phosphate catalyst, where Ar=9-phenanthryl, used successfully in the Strecker reaction. Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under http://www.wiley-vch.de/contents/jc_2002/2006/z600191_s.pdf or from the author. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.