Synthesis of Chiral Amines Using α‐Amino Aldehydes

If one were to rank chemical reagents on the basis of their “synthetic content”, loosely defined as the density of functional groups per arbitrary unit of molecular space, the α‐amino aldehydes will find themselves close to the very top of that list. The presence of synthetically ubiquitous amine and aldehyde functionalities predisposes α‐amino aldehydes towards highly convergent bond‐forming operations. Such juxtaposition does not come without a price: incompatibility of these functional groups calls for protecting groups. We discuss challenges and recently identified opportunities in this field.(© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2008)