Magnesium Schiff Base Catalyzed Direct Asymmetric Aldol Reaction

Significance

Direct aldol reaction of ketones is a challenging problem because of their steric hindrance. This research described a highly efficient catalytic transformation to solve this problem. In order to overcome the steric effect of ketones, the authors used α-isothiocyanato esters as nucleophiles, which could react with the hydroxyl group after the first nucleophilic addition step to generate stable oxazolidinone products.