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.