A total synthesis of ent-sedridine is described. The development of a new method for the construction of the C-2 chiral center of the piperidine ring was achieved using a proline-catalyzed Mannich reaction. Reaction of 4-hydroxybutanal and p-anisidine to form an imine and subsequent addition of acetone gave the key chiral aliphatic precursor with high enantioselectivity.Piperidine alkaloids exist widely in nature and many of them have a chiral center at their C-2 position. 1 However, in most cases, the amount of these alkaloids in biological systems is minute and it is therefore important to develop general methods to obtain these compounds, which have possible bioactivity. 2In the course of our study into the synthesis of indole alkaloids, 3 we have found that a proline-catalyzed asymmetric Mannich reaction 4 serves as a highly effective tool for the construction of a chiral center which is crucial for asymmetric synthesis. 5 Based on previous work, we have tried to apply this catalytic system to the synthesis of piperidine alkaloids and have found that a total synthesis of ent-sedridine could be achieved using the proline-catalyzed Mannich reaction as a key step. This paper describes these results.The piperidine alkaloid sedridine was isolated from Sedum acre in 1955, 6 several total syntheses were reported including those by Davis, 7 Murahashi, 8 Hootele, 9 Takahata, 10 and Litter. 11 The first four syntheses use chiral auxiliaries to obtain the chiral product. Litter and coworkers used the only synthesis involving a catalytic asymmetric transformation. In this paper, catalytic hydrogenation of a ketone was adopted as the asymmetric process, the ketoester intermediate was then reduced to the corresponding hydroxyester using Ru-BINAP as the catalyst under H 2 (200 psi). We thought that there were still drawbacks in the previous syntheses, namely the need for equimolar amounts of chiral sources or harsh reaction conditions.We investigated a new method for the construction of the C-2 chiral center of the piperidine ring, using a prolinecatalyzed Mannich reaction. List and co-workers reported a catalytic asymmetric Mannich reaction using imines, which were formed in situ by the reaction of an aromatic aldehyde and an amine, and enamines derived from (S)-proline and methyl ketones to give b-aminoketones in a highly enantioselective manner. 4 The application of the reaction to aldehydes was, however, seldom reported. 12Retrosynthesis for ent-sedridine is shown in Scheme 1. Sedridine (1) was to be obtained from an aliphatic precursor 2 by the Mitsunobu reaction. Compound 2 could be synthesized from the reaction of an imine 3 (formed by the reaction of 4-hydroxybutanal and p-anisidine) with an enamine 4 derived from (S)-proline and acetone.