The decalin structure is found in bioactive molecules.W eh ave developed catalytic enantioselective formal (4+ +2) cycloaddition reactions via aldol-aldol cascade reactions between pyruvate-derived diketoester derivatives and cyclohexane-1,3-dione derivatives that affordh ighly functionalized decalin derivatives.The reactions were performed using aq uinidine-derived catalyst under mild conditions.D ecalin derivatives bearing up to six chiral carbon centers including tetrasubstituted carbon centers were synthesized with high diastereo-and enantioselectivities.F ive to six stereogenic centers were generated from achiral molecules with the formation of two C À Cb onds in as ingle transformation resulting in the formation of the decalin system. The decalin ring system is found in diterpenes,diterpenoids, steroids,a nd other bioactive natural products and related molecules ( Figure 1). [1] Decalin derivatives often have antiinflammatory,a nti-bacterial, and anti-tumor activities. [1] Therefore,s ynthesis of functionalized decalin derivatives is of interest in drug discovery efforts and in related research. [2][3][4][5] Construction of the decalin ring system has been performed using cycloadditions, [2] cross coupling, [3] polyene cyclizations and related ene-involved annulations, [4] Robinson annulations [2c,d, 5] and related Michael-aldol reactions, [6] in which the reactions start from Michael additions to a,b-unsaturated ketones.H ere we report organocatalytic enantioselective aldol-aldol annulation cascade reactions to afford functionalized decalin derivatives (Scheme 1).In our strategy,C2symmetric starting materials pyruvatederived diketoester derivatives (dihydropyran derivatives) 1 [7] and cyclohexane-1,3-diones 2 are used for the aldol-aldol annulation cascade reactions to construct new cyclohexane rings,r esulting in the formation of decalin derivatives 3 or 4 (Scheme 1). Ther eaction is expected to generate five or six stereogenic centers,d epending on the substituent of 2.W e hypothesized that appropriate catalysts and conditions would accelerate the reactions of 1 with 2 to afford decalin derivatives 3 and 4 with high diastereo-and enantioselectivities. [8] First, we searched for catalysts and conditions for the reaction of 1a and 2a to afford 3a.Selected results are shown in Table 1. Ther eaction in the presence of triethylamine afforded racemic product 3a in ag ood yield (entry 1). For enantioselective versions of the reaction, the use of (DHQD) 2 AQN [9] with tetraethylammonium bromide (TEAB) as additive in toluene-N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) resulted in the formation of 3a in ag ood yield as as ingle diastereomer with high enantioselectivity (er 93:7, entry 4). Addition of TEAB improved the enantioselectivity (entry 2v ersus entry 3). Theu se of toluene-NMP as the solvent improved the solubility of 2a and resulted in faster reaction than the same reaction in toluene without affecting the enantioselectivity (entry 4v ersus entry 3). Theu se of three or more equivalents of 2a did not provide bette...