Abstract

Organocatalysis and cooperative catalysis are fast growing research areas. In these fields, cinchona alkaloids and their derivatives play a major role. The ready availability of both pseudo-enantiomeric pairs from natural sources makes them outstanding catalysts for reactions including oxidation, alkylation, cycloaddition, and carbene insertion. This short review focuses on recent achievements in the field of asymmetric carbon-nitrogen atom bond formation reactions using cinchona alkaloids and their derivatives.

Keywords: Cinchona alkaloids, enantioselective, N–H bond, organocatalysis, carbene.