Abstract

In recent years, asymmetric reactions catalyzed by the carbohydrate-based catalysts are the most intensively studied as they have been recognized as versatile starting materials for chiral auxiliaries, reagents, ligands and organocatalysts. The design and finetuning of carbohydrate-based catalysts is facilitated by the multiple functional groups present within this class of compounds. This strategy has provided unique ligand moieties which combine the performance of “privileged catalysts” with increased flexibility and accessibility. With the development of sugar-based ligands in selective catalysis, D-glucosamine has been selected as a cheap and readily available chiral scaffold for the synthesis of a series of novel ligands and organocatalysts. D-glucosamine-derived chiral catalysts has gained continuous increasing interest in asymmetric reactions. In this review, key development of asymmetric reactions catalyzed by Dglucosamine- derived chiral catalysts is summarized.

Keywords: Asymmetric reactions, D-glucosamine, Chiral ligands, Organocatalysts.