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.