Gold-Catalyzed Enantioselective Annulations

In the past decade, there have been many extraordinary advances in the development of gold-catalyzed enantioselective annulations, such as cycloadditions, cyclizations, cycloisomerizations, and tandem annulations, which are of particular interest owing to their potential for rapid construction of optically active hetero- and carbocyclic molecules. This Review summarizes the methods to construct chiral cyclic compounds by gold-catalyzed enantioselective annulations reported since 2005. The Review is organized according to the general annulation types catalyzed by chiral gold complexes or chiral gold salts, which have four main types (cycloadditions, cyclizations of C-C multiple bonds with tethered nucleophiles, cycloisomerization or cyclization of enynes, and tandem annulations), as well as some other strategies. The general reaction mechanisms of each subcategory, key intermediates for some unusual transformations, and the application of several novel ligands and chiral gold salts are also discussed.