Asymmetric Organocatalytic Synthesis of Substituted Chiral 1,4-Dihydropyridine Derivatives. Fernando Auria-Luna, Eugenia Marqués-López, M. Concepción Gimeno, Roghayeh Heiran, Somayeh Mohammadi, and Raquel P. Herrera, J. Org. Chem. 2017, 82, 5516–5523.

Abstract. The first cinchona-alkaloid-organocatalyzed enantioselective synthesis of chiral 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives is described. Bis-cinchona catalyst 3b activates the Michael addition reaction between malononitrile derivatives 2 and enamines 1, affording the appealing and highly substituted 1,4-dihydropyridines 4 with very good results in most cases. This is one of very few examples of the synthesis of chiral 1,4-dihydropyridines by an enantioselective catalytic procedure. The highly substituted final compounds are of interest for their potential biological activity. This efficient protocol opens the door to a new area of research for the asymmetric construction of these skeletons for which enantioselective syntheses are still very limited.

Fernando, Juanvi, Maru, Javi, Isaac, Sandra and Raquel (left to rigth).

Congratulations Fer!