The scientific legacy of Frieder W. Lichtenthaler.

This article presents a selection of topics from Professor Frieder W. Lichtenthaler's scientific lifework. It describes his contributions to, and further development of, the nitromethane cyclization of dialdehydes leading to amino sugars and amino nucleosides, as well as a new coupling methodology for purine nucleosides.

Asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral amino ketones to amino alcohols for pharmaceutical use.

This Account gives an overview of the homogeneously catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral amino ketones. The preparation of enantiopure arylalkanolamines, which are potent and economically very important pharmaceuticals, is described. Classical routes of synthesis are compared with the new asymmetric hydrogenation route for a number of compounds from the viewpoint of an industrial pharmaceutical chemist.