ABSTRACT
The significance of asymmetric synthesis has long been appreciated by the scientific community. Indeed, natural products generally exist as a single enantiomer as a consequence of the inherent chirality of the enzymes that produce them. Furthermore, enzymes, receptors and other binding sites in biological systems recognize compounds with a specific chirality. Two enantiomers of a chiral molecule can display dramatically different biological activities, to the point that one enantiomer is an active drug and the other exhibits fatal toxicity. Therefore, the development of new asymmetric synthetic methods for preparation of enantiopure materials has become of critical importance.
