Kazuo Achiwa

Chiral Pyrrolidinephosphine Ligands: Application to the Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Tetrasubstituted Olefins

Natural products which have the asymmetric centers usually occurs as the optically active form and their biological activity also shows the marked contrast with that of their antipodes. These facts stimulated the interest of chemists in the synthesis of chiral compounds. Especially, the development of the catalytic asymmetric synthesis with small amount of chiral catalysts producing the large amount of the chiral products, the most practically useful and theoretically interested method for the preparation of the chiral compounds has been devoted considerable efforts to 1, 2).