In order to investigate significant differences in asymmetric induction for pseudo enantiomeric carbohydrate olefin ligands in rhodium(I)catalysed 1,4-addition reactions, we designed a set of new olefin ligands differing in relative configuration and pyranoside conformation. With these, we have successfully elucidated structural requirements for metal binding and also identified an improved alternative for one pseudo enantiomer. Furthermore, we report the efficient kinetic resolution of a racemic 4-hydroxycyclopentenone derivative by 1,4-addition.Due to the increasing demand for chiral building blocks in natural product and medicinal chemistry, the design of new chiral ligands for asymmetric metal catalysis is an active research field. Chiral olefin ligands, [1] introduced independently by Hayashi [2] and Carreira, [3] are the ligands of choice for rhodium(I)mediated 1,4-additions of boronic acids to enones. [4] Carbohydrates are attractive, inexpensive starting materials for the design of novel ligands. [5] With gluco-enoPhos (1a, 1aa) [6] and galacto-enoPhos (psent-1a), [7] we have introduced a set of pseudo enantiomeric [8] olefin-phosphinite ligands derived from d-glucose and d-galactose (Scheme 1), giving 1,4-addition products in opposite configurations and typically above 90% ee. Significantly lower selectivity was observed for the gluco-ligands 1a and 1aa with bulky arylboronic and alkenylboronic acids, while high ees were retained with galacto-ligand ps-ent-1a. [7] This finding prompted us to investigate the origin of the differing asymmetric induction exerted by 1a and 1aa on the one hand and ps-ent-1a on the other hand, as well as to develop an improved alternative to gluco-ligands 1a and 1aa.An obvious explanation for the different efficiency of the gluco-ligands (1a, 1aa) and galacto-ligand (ps-Scheme 1. Ligands gluco-enoPhos (1a and 1aa) and galacto-enoPhos (ps-ent-1a): proposed coordination to Rh(I).