Novel isomenthone-derived 1,3-diol ligands identified through parallel synthesis and screening catalyse an asymmetric aldol reaction

A library of new (+)-isomenthone-derived 1,3-diol ligands, containing 5 contiguous stereocentres (3 fixed, 2 variable), was prepared in 2 steps by parallel synthesis. Evaluation in parallel identified several different ligands from the library for catalysing a Mukaiyama aldol reaction with 87–90% e.e.