Enantioselective Allylation of Imines Directed by Imidazoles

Significance

The use of an imidazole-directing group activates the allylation reagent 2, thus providing access to chiral homoallylic amines under simple reaction conditions. Noteworthy is the rapid one-pot synthesis of functionalized cyclic chiral amines 8. Indeed, upon addition of Grubbs II catalyst to the reaction mixture of 7, enantio­enriched heterocycles bearing tertiary carbin­amines were obtained efficiently. An attractive feature of this method is the synthesis of chiral amines without protecting groups.