Recent Development in the Asymmetric Michael Addition for Carbon-Carbon Bond Formation

Attempts to induce stereoselectivity in the conjugate addition to the alpha, beta-unsaturated acceptors have been investigated by numerous research groups, classically through the use of either a chiral acceptor or chiral donor component in the reaction. The asymmetric Michael addition catalyzed by chiral catalysts has been extensively proven and established to be a powerful synthetic tool for especially a range of asymmetric syntheses of natural products and various heterocyclic systems. This review covers the recent reports and further applications of this methodology in the formation of carbon-carbon bond between or within functionalized and sensitive substrates which provides new opportunities, mainly in the total synthesis, medicinal and process chemistry, nanotechnology and chemical biology.