The enantioselective oxidative dearomatization of phenols and their analogues is a key reaction for the synthesis of several natural products. [1] Conventionally, enantioselective transition-metal catalysis has been used for these transformations. [1c-e] Recently, some research groups [2] have reported catalytic enantioselective oxidative dearomatization reactions using chiral hypervalent iodine compounds. [3] However, the catalytic activities and enantioselectivities are moderate, and the substrate scope of the oxidation reactions is limited to 1-naphthol derivatives. Herein, we describe the rationally designed chiral iodoarene 1, which is derived from chiral 2-aminoalcohol, as a chiral precatalyst for the first enantioselective catalytic oxidative dearomatization of phenol derivatives 3 to give the desired cyclohexadienone spirolactones 4 and the subsequent Diels-Alder adducts [4] 5 with high to excellent enantioselectivities (87-99 % ee, Scheme 1). Active iodine(III) species 2 would be generated in situ from C 2 -symmetric and conformationally flexible chiral iodoarene 1 and meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid (m-CPBA). We envisioned that a suitable chiral environment might be constructed around the iodine(III) center via intramolecular hydrogen bonding interactions between the acidic amido protons and the iodine(III) ligands (L).A preliminary examination of 1 (10 mol %) in the oxidative dearomatization of 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol derivative 3 a with 1.2 equivalents of m-CPBA in chloroform gave cyclohexadienone 4 a in 72 % yield with 91 % ee (Table 1, entry 1). However, the chemical yield and enantioselectivity of 4 a were significantly reduced when the reaction was performed in distilled chloroform (entry 2). The commercial chloroform that we used (Nacalai Tesque Inc., Japan) contained a small amount (ca. 1 wt %) of ethanol as a stabilizer. Thus, we serendipitously found that both the chemical yield and enantioselectivity of 4 a could be improved to the same level as in entry 1 by the addition of 10 equivalents of ethanol in distilled chloroform (entry 3). Next, alcohol additives and solvents were investigated in detail, [5] and the best result was obtained using 25 equivalents of methanol as an additive and dichloromethane as a solvent Scheme 1. Chiral organoiodine(III)-catalyzed enantioselective oxidative dearomatization of phenols and subsequent Diels-Alder reactions. m-CPBA = meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid, L = ligand, Mes = mesityl. Table 1: Oxidative dearomatization of 3 a. Entry Precat. Solvent Additive (equiv) Yield [%] ee [%]