Multicatalyst System Mediated Asymmetric Reactions in Total Synthesis

A standard to evaluate the flexibility and powerfulness of a given synthetic method is whether it is capable of facilitating the efficient and stereoselective synthesis of important bioactive natural products and their analogues in great structural diversity. The application of multicatalyst system to the total synthesis of complex natural products or drugs has been attempted, with some remarkable examples available. Although at its beginning, this powerful strategy proves to be able to bring about important advantages in the natural product synthesis: (1) enable the unprecedented rapid synthesis of key building blocks of natural products and drugs with the control of stereoselectivities; (2) improve the step economy; and (3) significantly facilitate the synthesis of stereoisomers and analogues of natural products by different catalyst combinations. This chapter introduces some representative examples of natural product or drug synthesis involving multicatalyst systems mediated asymmetric reactions.