Abstract: | In the field of chiral technology, the synthesis of chiral intermediates and chiral building blocks occupies an important position. Chiral building blocks bearing double and / or multiple functionalities is particularly useful for the synthesis of chiral pharmaceuticals and chiral agrochemicals. In the recent years, we have been engaged in the development of synthetic methodology based on (S)-malic acid1-s. In these studies, malimide 2, easily accessible from (S)-malic acid, was shown to be a useful multifunctional building block in the asymmetric synthesis of natural products and chiral drugs (Scheme 1). |