p-Methoxyphenylimines obtained from enolizable aldehydes react in the absence of catalysts at room temperature with β-keto carboxylic acids through a decarboxylative Mannich reaction. The Mannich products were obtained with a high degree of anti selectivity. By use of chiral oxygen-containing aldehydes, operationally simple access to aminohydroxylated polyketide substructures is possible.

Beyond a doubt organocatalysis belongs to the most exciting and innovative chapters of organic chemistry today. Organocatalysis has emerged not only as a complement to metal-catalyzed reactions and to biocatalysis over the last decade, but also provides new asymmetric organocatalyzed reactions that cannot be accomplished by metal- or biocatalyzed reactions so far. A large number of organocatalytic processes are already well established in organic synthesis. Nevertheless, the number of publications in this field is still on the increase; new important results are produced constantly. This review gives a detailed overview of the latest developments and main streams in organocatalyzed asymmetric CC bond formation processes of the last three years. It is intended to outline the most important current findings focused on especially new synthetic methodologies.

A new concept to access unsymmetrical 1,2-diols with high yields is reported. This new methodology is based on a retropinacol/cross-pinacol coupling process. This transformation is characterized by its operational simplicity and very mild reaction conditions.

A new catalytic retro-pinacol/cross-pinacol reaction, followed by subsequent rearrangement or deoxygenation of the intermediately formed vicinal diols, is described. This operationally simple one-pot protocol allows isolation of geminal α,α-diphenyl ketones or 1,1-diphenyl alkenes with high yields and selectivities.

Solvent- and catalyst-free aldol additions of activated aldehydes to 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds are described. Aldol condensation was not observed under these reaction conditions. This unexpected aldol reaction could be extended successfully to a variety of acyclic and cyclic β-dicarbonyl compounds.

The selective total synthesis of carbohydrates with defined configuration has been of great interest for a long time. This field has been the domain of enzymatic methods so far. But now the recent development of several organocatalyzed aldol methodologies has made a selective synthetic approach to configuratively defined carbohydrates possible. This development and different strategies will be discussed in this concept article.