Catalytic Asymmetric Total Syntheses of Quinine and Quinidine

The catalytic, asymmetric syntheses of quinine and quinidine were achieved in 16 steps. The recently developed salen(Al)-catalyzed enantioselective Michael addition of methyl cyanoacetate served to set the crucial C4 stereocenter in 92% ee, and a late-stage asymmetric dihydroxylation was used to differentiate the common intermediate and access the two desired diastereomeric products with high selectivity.