Chapter 13: Peptides as Asymmetric Organocatalysts¹

In the last several years peptide organocatalysis has been recognised as a powerful und useful tool in organic chemistry, because peptides are very modular, structurally diverse and easily accessible from Nature's toolbox. Due to their broad synthetic applicability, the development of new peptide catalysts has been continuously studied and enabled great progress in the past two decades. This chapter gives the reader an updated overview of the recent developments in different important transformations catalysed by peptides. Among highlights of this history are alcohol esterifications, Michael additions, aldol reactions, Strecker reactions, asymmetric cyanohydrin synthesis and alkene epoxidation.