In recent years, organocatalysis has enhanced its importance as a tool for the synthesis of enantiomerically enriched compounds. Among the candidates for organocatalysis, the construction of asymmetric quaternary carbons is regarded as a challenging problem in organic synthesis. In particular, 3,3′-disubstituted oxindoles have one or more asymmetric quaternary carbon atoms and they represent a large family of bioactive compounds and synthetic derivatives that mimicry natural products. Therefore they are good targets for drug candidates and in the last two years many papers have appeared on organocatalytic methods for the synthesis of 3,3′-disubstituted oxindoles. Moreover, in the last few years 2-substituted and 2,2′-disubtituted 3-indolinones have also attracted the interest of chemists. This review aims to cover the literature on these topics from its origin to the end of 2011.

The desire for new synthetic methodologies for the rapid construction of enantiomerically pure substituted indole has been a fruitful driving force for chemical research in the last few years. This research line has produced a stunning array of enantioselective technologies either metal or organocatalyzed. This critical review documents the development of organocatalytic indole alkylation strategies, until the end of 2009 (127 references).

Rearrangement of epoxides is performed with erbium ­triflate as catalyst. In contrast to most proposed catalysts for this reaction, erbium triflate works well with both aromatic and aliphatic epoxides.

The 1,4-conjugate addition of nucleophiles to α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds represents one fundamental bond-forming reaction in organic synthesis. The development of effective organocatalysts for the enantioselective conjugate addition of malonate, nitroalkane and other carbon and heteroatom nucleophiles to cycloenones constitutes an important research field and has been explored in recent years. At the same time, asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions have been developed and often a mechanism has been demonstrated to be a double addition rather than synchronous. This review aims to cover literature up to the end of 2010, describing all the different organocatalytic asymmetric 1,4-conjugate additions even if they are listed as transfer hydrogenation, cycloadditions or desymmetrization of aromatic compounds.

Substituted allyl protecting groups can be removed from alcohols using the CeCl₃ · 7 H₂O/NaI system in refluxing nitromethane in the presence of a scavenger for the allyl iodide. In contrast to this, deprotection of the allyl group proceeds barely in acetonitrile.