Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis of Chiral Benzofuranones

The chiral benzofuranone structural motif is a prominent feature in many natural products, which exhibit a broad range of biological and pharmaceutical activities. In the past few years, a survey of chiral benzofuranone derivatives based on asymmetric catalysis reveals an increasing number of papers, which reflects the latest achievements to facilitate the synthesis of sufficient quantities of related compounds as potential medicinal agents and biological probes. Recent advances in this area are summarized and classified according to the structure of the starting substrate.