A new bifunctional titanium/Schiff base catalyst was developed for the enantioselective cyanoformylation of aldehydes with ethyl cyanoformate. The reaction proceeded smoothly with a mild reaction condition to afford the cyanohydrin ethyl carbonates in high yields (up to 96%) and good enantioselectivities (up to 85% enantiomeric excess). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A series of new modular bifunctional chiral thiourea organocatalysts were synthesized from natural Cinchona alkaloids and amino acids, and their performance in the aza-Henry reaction of nitroalkanes to imines, the Michael addition of acetylacetone to nitroolefins and the Michael addition of acetone to nitroolefins was investigated. Under the mild conditions, the important building blocks β-nitro amines and γ-nitro carbonyl compounds could be obtained in good yields (up to 95%) with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99% ee) and diastereoselectivity (up to 17:1).