Diastereo-and enantioselective conjugate addition of 3-substituted oxindoles to enones via bifunctional catalysts

Abstract EN

This paper presents a synthetically challenging vicinal quaternary-tertiary C–C forming reaction of 3-substituted oxindoles and chalcones by a simple aryl substituted bifunctional thiourea catalyst.

The reactions work with a broad range of chalcones, giving chiral 3,30-substituted oxindoles type compounds with adjacent quaternary-tertiary stereocenters in high yields (up to 99%), very good dr (up to >98:2) and very good ee (up to 96 %)