The effect of chirality and steric bulk of 2,5-disubstituted piperazines as additives in the conjugate addition of 2-nitropropane to cyclohexenone, catalyzed by l-proline, was investigated. Neither chirality nor steric bulk affects the enantioselectivity of addition, which gives 86-93% ee in the presence of achiral and chiral nonracemic 2,5-disubstituted piperazines. Proline hydroxamic acid is shown for the first time to be an effective organocatalyst in the same Michael reaction.

The asymmetric synthesis of a carbocyclic delta-amino acid representing the P(2)/P(3) subunit of a nonpeptidic truncated peptidomimetic molecule is described relying on two independent approaches.