Diaryl Prolinols in Stereoselective Catalysis and Synthesis: An Update

Discovered more than one decade ago, alpha,alpha-diaryl prolinols, most of them commercially available compounds, demonstrated to be distinctive organocatalysts in asymmetric synthesis. Their application successfully spanned across different carbon-carbon or carbon-heteroatom bond forming reactions and cascade processes, exploiting covalent and noncovalent activation of the reagents. In this minireview, the advances from 2013 up to the end of 2018 in alpha,alpha-diaryl prolinols promoted stereoselective catalysis and synthesis of biologically active compounds, are illustrated.