Amine catalysis, through HOMO-activating enamine and LUMO-activating iminium-ion formation, is receiving increasing attention among other organocatalytic strategies, for the activation of unmodified carbonyl compounds. Particularly, the HOMO-raising activation concept has been applied to the greatest number of asymmetric transformations through enamine, dienamine, and SOMO-activation strategies. Recently, trienamine catalysis, an extension of amine catalysis, has emerged as a powerful tool for synthetic chemists with a novel activation strategy for polyenals/polyenones. In this review article, we discuss the initial developments of trienamine catalysis for highly asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions with different dienophiles and emerging opportunities for other types of cycloadditions and cascade reactions.

A new method for one-pot synthesis of 2,3-substituted piperidine from N-PMP aldimine and aqueous glutaraldehyde via formal [4+2] cycloaddition is reported. This reaction involves organocatalytic direct Mannich reaction-reductive cyclization with high yields (up to 90%) and excellent enantioselectivities (up to >99%). The practicability of this method is also shown at a gram scale as well as through the synthesis of functionalized (-)-anabasine.

A simple and highly practical one-pot formal [4 + 2] cycloaddition approach for the enantioselective synthesis of N-PMP-1,2-dihydropyridines (DHPs) is described. This chemistry involves an amino-catalytic direct Mannich reaction/cyclization followed by IBX-mediated chemo- and regioselective oxidation sequence between readily available aqueous glutaraldehyde and imines under very mild conditions. A series of N-PMP-1,2-DHPs have been prepared in high yields and excellent enantioselectivity. This method also gives access to both enantiomers of 1,2-DHPs in surplus amount by shifting the catalyst configuration.

Organocatalytic domino reactions involving amine activation of carbonyl compounds have become the latest chemical technology towards the design and development of useful synthetic methods. In this direction, linear dialdehydes such as succinaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, and other homologous compounds have attracted considerable attention as suitable substrates for amine catalyzed transformations. Due to their unique structural features, dialdehydes can easily engage in recreation of cascade/tandem transformations for the synthesis of valuable natural products and drug molecules. In this review article we discuss the current scenario and potential applications of linear dialdehydes as adequate synthetic substrates for amine catalyzed transformations to access biologically important complex scaffolds.

A pot-economic method for the enantio-and diastereoselective synthesis of a [2.2.2] azabicyclic isoquinuclidine system is developed. This protocol involves the proline-catalyzed direct Mannich reaction-cyclization/IBX-mediated site-selective oxidation/NaBH 4 -reduction sequence between glutaraldehyde and imines to generate in situ chiral 1,2-DHPs, followed by the diastereoselective Diels−Alder reaction with N-aryl maleimides furnishing isoquinuclidines in overall five steps. A variety of isoquinuclidines having five-contiguous chiral centers, including an all-carbon quaternary, were prepared with high yields (up to 78%) and excellent stereoselectivity (>50:1 dr, and up to >99:1 er). DFT calculations support the observed high stereoselective reaction outcome.