Novel approach to 5-substituted proline derivatives using a silver-catalyzed cyclization as the key step.

A novel synthetic approach to the synthesis of enantiomerically pure 2,5-disubstituted pyrrolines is described. The methodology involves a Ag-catalyzed 5-endo-dig cyclization of enantiopure aryl-substituted acetylene-containing amino acids. It has also been shown that the obtained pyrrolines can be efficiently transformed into the corresponding saturated 5-aryl-substituted proline derivatives.