The asymmetric conjugate addition of carbon and heteroatom nucleophiles to nitroalkenes is a very interesting tool for the construction of highly functionalized synthetic building blocks. Thanks to the rapid development of asymmetric organocatalysis, significant progress has been made during the last years in achieving efficiently this process, concerning chiral organocatalysts, substrates and reaction conditions. This review surveys the advances in asymmetric organocatalytic conjugate addition reactions to α,β-unsaturated nitroalkenes developed between 2013 and early 2017.

Direct nucleophilic substitution reactions of allylic alcohols are environmentally friendly, since they generate only water as a byproduct, allowing access to new allylic compounds. This reaction has, thus, attracted the interest of the chemical community and several strategies have been developed for its successful accomplishment. This review gathers the latest advances in this methodology involving S_N1-type reactions. 1 Introduction 2 S_N1-Type Direct Nucleophilic Substitution Reactions of Allylic­ Alcohols 2.1 Lewis Acids as Catalysts 2.2 Brønsted Acids as Catalysts 2.3 Other Promoters 3 Conclusions and Outlook