Aqueous enantioselective organocatalytic Diels-Alder reactions employing hydrazide catalysts. A new scaffold for organic acceleration.

[reaction: see text] Cyclic hydrazides function as asymmetric organocatalysts in aqueous Diels-Alder reactions. The hydrazide is employed as the catalytic machinery in a compact camphor-derived framework that imparts facial selectivity to the cycloadditions. Kinetic evidence suggests the reaction involves rapid iminium formation.