Novel Bifunctional Chiral Brønsted Acid/Base Organocatalysis

Significance A novel bifunctional chiral Brønsted acid/base catalyst is reported. The authors applied the new catalyst 1 to the enantioselective desymmetrization of meso -anhydrides, and the products were obtained in good yields and high enantioselectivities (er up to 99:1). The synthetic utility of this methodology was demonstrated in the symmetric formal synthesis of (+)-grandisol.