Chiral Ligands Derived From Abrine .3. Asymmetric Pictet-Spengler Reaction Of Abrine Methyl Ester And Synthesis Of Chiral 1,2,3,4-Tetrahydro-Beta-Carbolines As Promoters In Addition Of Diethylzinc Toward Aromatic Aldehydes

Asymmetric Pictet-Spengler reaction of a number of aldehydes with Abrine methyl ester (1) was performed at room temperature to furnish mainly 3 and high ee was obtained in enantioselective addition of Et(2)Zn with PhCHO catalyzed by chiral 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-beta-carboline derivatives 5 synthesized from 3. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd