Catalytic Enantioselective α-Arylation of Carbonyl Enolates and Related Compounds

Optically active alpha-arylation carbonyl units are widely present in a wide variety of drugs, bioactive natural products, and valuable pharmacologically active molecules. Catalytic enantioselective alpha-arylation of carbonyl enolates or the related precursors with various arylating agents constitutes a powerful tactic for constructing such privileged scaffolds, which is of great interest and has gained considerable progress. This review summarizes the advances based on two major strategies with diverse arylating agents, discusses in detail the reaction mechanism, limitations, and advantages of each method and their applications, and expounds the synthetic opportunities still open for further exploration.