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A new chiral aziridino alcohol ligand for zinc(II)-catalyzed azomethine ylide cycloadditions is described. In the presence of this catalyst, N-arylidene glycine methyl esters react with a variety of dipolarophiles to give substituted pyrrolidines in very good to excellent chemical yields and up to 95% ee. The absolute sense of asymmetric induction appears to be dipolarophile-dependent.

Highly functionalized pyrrolidines are obtained in a single chemical step via a mild, efficient, and selective AgI-catalyzed asymmetric CNCCC coupling process. Oppolzer's camphorsultam enables the desired reaction cascade and provides a reliable means to control the developing stereochemistry and purify the products. This three-component reaction provides unprecedented access to structurally diverse pyrrolidines for both target- and diversity-oriented syntheses.