Biomimetic total synthesis of (+)-gelsemine

Challenging: (+)-gelsemine was synthesized from (R,R)-aziridine 1 in 25 steps with approximately 1 % overall yield. A multistep, one-pot enol-oxonium cyclization cascade was used to construct, simultaneously, the E ring, F ring, C3 stereocenter, and C7 quaternary stereocenter. This synthesis using the enol-oxonium cyclization reaction as a key step to make the cage structure has demonstrated the proposed biosynthetic pathway of the gelsemine family.     

Organocatalytic asymmetric synthesis of quinine and quinidine

Quinine and quinidine were synthesized by a highly enantio- and stereoselective approach starting from a proline-catalyzed asymmetric cycloaldolization of benzyl bis(2-formylethyl)carbamate which gave a 70:30 mixture of (3R,4R)-N-Cbz-3-hydroxymethyl-4-hydroxypiperidine (96% ee) and its 4S-epimer (92% ee) in 94% yield after in situ NaBH₄ reduction.