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…