ABSTRACT
Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. 348
References .......................................................................................................................... 349
Alcohols are one of the most common functional groups in organic chemistry, either as
constituents of the final products or as ‘‘handles’’ for further synthetic transformations. While
all primary alcohols are achiral, this is not necessarily true of secondary and tertiary alcohols.
For these cases, controlling the absolute stereochemistry is always essential in modern
synthesis. Solutions to this problem include kinetic resolutions by acylation or deacylation,
stereoselective oxidations, and asymmetric reductions [1-3]. The last method-asymmetric
ketone reduction-is particularly powerful as it potentially allows 100% of the starting
material to be transformed into the desired enantiomer, as compared with kinetic resolution
strategies that have maximal 50% yields.