Chiral ligands derived from abrine. Part 5. Substituent effects on asymmetric induction in enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde catalyzed by chiral oxazolidines possessing an indole moiety

A number of the indole-containing chiral oxazolidines possessing the gem-di-p-tolyl and gem-di-o-tolyl groups at C-5 were synthesized from abrine and the effects of the C-5 and C-2 substituents on the asymmetric induction in catalytic enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde were examined. A working model is proposed to rationalize the asymmetric catalysis by these chiral oxazolidines. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.