Simple and practical routes to enantiomerically pure 5-(trialkylsilyl)-2-cyclohexenones.

[reaction: see text] Enantiomerically pure chiral 5-silylated 2-cyclohexenones are easily prepared in high yield using as a key step kinetic resolution with a commercially available lipase. Fully active enzyme can be recovered very efficiently for reuse. The synthetic steps are outlined in Schemes 1 and 3. Enantiomerically pure 2-cyclohexenones such as 1 and 2 are versatile intermediates for the synthesis of a multitude of chiral targets by means of a variety of diastereoselective reactions such as those illustrated in Scheme 2.