Introduction

Abstract

The recent developments of the organocatalytic asymmetric reactions are summarized in this chapter. Among them, the hydrogen bond (HB) donor catalysts such as thiourea catalysts are well known as effective organocatalyst motif. My research group has developed the thiourea catalyst bearing a tertiary amino group. In the concept of this catalyst, the thiourea moiety and the tertiary amino group act as a Brønsted acid and a Brønsted base, respectively. These motifs activate both the electrophiles and the nucleophiles, respectively, resulting in a considerable acceleration of the reaction rate. So far, a number of other groups including our own have reported a variety of asymmetric reactions by using this concept. Recently, based on this concept, various bifunctional organocatalysts having other HB donor moieties than thiourea or possessing different functional groups than basic amino group have been developed.