A Catalytic Enantioselective Synthesis of Biologically Interesting Cyclopropane Amines

The synthesis of cyclopropane amine has attracted considerable interest from organic chemists because of the biologically importance and its occurrence in numerous natural products¹. Several synthetic cyclopropane amines have been used as drugs, e.g. the monoamine oxidase inhibitor tranylcypromine (1)². However, it has been found that two enantiomers of chiral cyclopropane amine have different pharmacological effects³,which demands organic chemists to develop efficient methods to prepare them enantioselectively. Previous synthesis of enantiomerically pure cyclopropane amines involves resolution of racemic cyclopropane carboxylic acid followed by Curtius degradation⁴.