Recent advances in organocatalytic asymmetric Michael reactions

The Michael addition reaction represents one of the most powerful methods for the formation of carbon–carbon bonds in organic synthesis. Thanks to the rapid development of asymmetric organocatalysis, significant progress has been made during the past years in achieving organocatalytic asymmetric Michael reactions with a diverse combination of Michael donors and acceptors. Many new substrates have been accordingly applied in this reaction, together with the new approaches developed for the purpose of target- and diversity-oriented asymmetric synthesis. This review surveys the advances in target- and diversity-oriented asymmetric organocatalytic Michael reactions developed between 2009 and early 2011.