Asymmetric oxidative dearomatizations promoted by hypervalent iodine(III) reagents: an opportunity for rational catalyst design?

The use of and lambda(3)- and lambda(5)-iodanes in the oxidative dearomatization of phenols is a well-established and general procedure for the construction of cyclohexadienone structures. However, their use in asymmetric dearomatization reactions is quite underdeveloped and, despite work by several research groups over the past several years, a general chiral aryl iodide catalyst has yet to emerge. This Letter will serve to highlight the significant progress that has been made in this area and will reveal some of deficiencies in the literature that the author believes may be hindering further progress. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.