Catalytic concepts for the enantioselective synthesis of alpha-amino and alpha-hydroxy phosphonates.

The enantioselective synthesis of alpha-amino- and alpha-hydroxy phosphonates by catalytic processes has attracted considerable interest in the last few years, not least because of the pharmaceutical interest in such compounds. This article contains a compilation of the asymmetric synthesis methods developed to date. The described synthetic routes are based on different catalytic concepts, namely, hydrogenation, reductions, dihydroxylation, aminohydroxylation, and hydrophosphonylation.