Spirocyclic o-quinone analogues showed a broad spectrum of applications as biologically active compounds. We herein reported the chiral bifunctional-squaramide catalysed asymmetric vinylogous aldol−cyclization cascade reaction between 3-alkylidene oxindoles and o-quinones....

A catalytic asymmetric vinylogous Mannich/annulation/acylation reaction of 2‐ethylidene 1,3‐indandiones with isatin N‐Boc ketimines has been developed, which furnished a series of chiral spiro‐oxindole piperidine derivatives with polyaromatic scaffolds in 30–67% yield and 93–98% ee. The DFT computational calculation is used to probe and explain the origin of the enantioselectivity and observed formation of O‐acetylated products.

An efficient decarboxylative addition reaction of βketoacids with miscellaneous electrophiles in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE) is reported. The reaction proceeds smoothly without any base and metal catalysts, affording a broad range of diarylmethanes, β-hydroxy ketones and 3,3-disubstituted oxindoles with moderate to excellent yields under essentially neutral conditions.