A simple recipe for sophisticated cocktails: organocatalytic one-pot reactions--concept, nomenclature, and future perspectives

Asymmetric organocatalysis has been successfully incorporated in many multistep one-pot sequences to provide simple access to structurally complex target molecules in a highly stereoselective fashion. The key feature behind this success is the ability of organocatalyzed reactions to proceed efficiently in the presence of large amounts of spectator reagents. Additionally, owing to their organic nature and substoichiometric presence, organocatalysts are also expected to become innocent bystanders in subsequent transformations. In this Minireview, an easy-to-use classification and nomenclatural system that is capable of systematically and informatively describing each one-pot reaction is introduced, and selected important contributions within the field of organocatalytic one-pot reactions are reviewed according to this new system. Finally, future developments and perspectives in the field are discussed.