Substrate-Controlled, One-Pot Synthesis: Access to Chiral Chroman-2-one and Polycyclic Derivatives

Based on the appropriate choice of electrophiles, one-pot, multicomponent, enantioselective domino reactions have been realized which contain a five-step sequence and provide highly efficient access to potentially bioactive chroman-2-one derivatives as a single diastereoisomer with excellent enantioselectivities and in high yields. This new strategy could significantly improve the previous protocol by directly starting from commercial 2-hydroxybenzaldehydes rather than preformed lactols, which have to be synthesized in several additional steps.