Addition of Tethered Nonaromatic Carbon Nucleophiles to Chemoselectively Activated Amides

[reaction: see text] In an effort to develop new ways of synthesizing polycyclic alkaloids, we successfully added silyl enol ethers, allylsilanes, and enamines to iminium ions generated from amides. Because of their higher oxidation state, such iminiums show a yet unexploited advantage of potential double cyclizations over standard Mannich monocyclizations. We report herein the first example of tethered nonaromatic carbon nucleophiles adding to activated amides for the generation of enaminals of various ring sizes, with endo- or exo-cyclic nitrogen.