A concise asymmetric assembly of secologanine tryptamine and dopamine alkaloids by means of a one-pot three-component cascade reaction methodology is disclosed. This is demonstrated by the expeditious total syntheses of (-)-dihydrocorynanthenol, (-)-protoemetinol, (-)-protoemetine, (-)-3-epiprotoemetinol, and emetine (3-6 steps). The biomimetic syn-

A general strategy for the total asymmetric synthesis of valuable tropane alkaloids by catalytic stereoselective transformations is disclosed. The power of this approach is exemplified by the concise catalytic enantioselective total syntheses of (+)-methylecgonine, (À)-cocaine and (+)-cocaine as well as the first catalytic asymmetric total syntheses of a cocaine C-1 derivative and (+)-ferruginine start-ing from 5-oxo-protected-a,b-unsaturated enals using only two and three column chromatographic purification steps, respectively.