Asymmetric bromine-lithium exchange: on the importance of both the diamine ligand and the organolithium reagent.

The asymmetric bromine-lithium exchange on a series of prochiral biphenyls was investigated. As in many asymmetric organolithium reactions, the chiral ligand (here a diamine) was considered to be the enantiocontrolling element. We show here that the organolithium reagent also plays an important role.

Asymmetric bromine-lithium exchange: application toward the synthesis of natural product.

Asymmetric bromine-lithium exchange has been successfully employed to synthesize bicoumarin chiral building blocks of (+)-isokotanin A and (-)-kotanin in good yields and with an excellent level of enantioselectivity. This is the first reported example of formal syntheses, using this direct methodology, leading to the single (M)-atropoisomer of (+)-isokotanin A and (-)-kotanin building blocks, without any resolution step.