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The synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles, including natural alkaloids and other compounds presenting different types of biological activities have proved to be successful employing chiral sulfinyl imines derived from tert-butanesulfinamide. These imines are versatile chiral auxiliaries and have been extensively used as eletrophiles in a wide range of reactions. The electron-withdrawing sulfinyl group facilitates the nucleophilic addition of organometallic compounds to the iminic carbon with high diastereoisomeric excess and the free amines obtained after an easy removal of the tert-butanesulfinyl group can be transformed into enantioenriched nitrogen-containing heterocycles. The goal of this review is to the highlight enantioselective syntheses of heterocycles involving the use of chiral N-tert-butanesulfinyl imines as reaction intermediates, including the synthesis of several natural products. The synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles in which the nitrogen atom is not provided by the chiral imine will not be considered in this review. The sections are organized according to the size of the heterocycles. The present work will comprehensively cover the most pertinent contributions to this research area from 2012 to 2020. We regret in advance that some contributions are excluded in order to maintain a concise format. We thank the continuous financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO; project CTQ2014-53695-P, CTQ2014-51912-REDC, CTQ2016-81797-REDC, CTQ2017-85093-P), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (RED2018-102387-T, PID2019-107268GB-100), FEDER, the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEOII/2014/017), and the University of Alicante (VIGROB-068). We are also grateful for the financial support from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).

The addition of but-3-enylmagnesium bromide and pent-4-enylmagnesium bromide to N-tert-butanesulfinyl aldimines in toluene as solvent proceeds with high diastereoselectivity to yield the corresponding products of homoallylation and bis-homoallylation, respectively. The reactions are diastereoselective, and the configuration of the sulfur atom of the sulfinyl group determined the stereochemical outcome. The reaction products are aminoalkene derivatives of potential synthetic interest as precursors of nitrogen containing heterocycles. We thank the continued financial support from our Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCINN; CONSOLIDER INGENIO 2010‐CDS2007‐00006, CTQ2011‐24165), the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO; projects CTQ2014‐53695‐P, CTQ2014‐51912‐REDC, CTQ2016‐81797‐REDC), FEDER, the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO 2009/039, PROMETEOII/2014/017), and the University of Alicante.

The reaction of N-tert-butanesulfinyl imines 1 with 1,3-dibromopropene (2), in the presence of indium metal, in saturated aqueous solution of sodium bromide, produced bromohomoallylamine derivatives 3 with total facial diastereoselectivity for the imine addition, and moderate yields. These compounds were easily transformed into the corresponding vinyl aziridines 5 upon deprotonation with KHMDS in THF, the intramolecular cyclization taking place in a stereospecific manner in moderate to high yields. We thank the continued financial support from our Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO; project CTQ2014-53695-P, CTQ2014-51912-REDC, CTQ2016-81797-REDC, CTQ2017-85093-P), FEDER, the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEOII/2014/017), and the University of Alicante.

The palladium(II)-catalyzed oxidation of homoallylic amine derivatives resulting from the allylation of N-tert-butanesulfinyl imines with allyl bromide led to the formation of the corresponding terminal allylic acetates in a regioselective fashion in moderate yields. In the case of the homoallylic amine derivatives obtained using cyclohexenyl bromide as the allylating reagent, the allylic oxidation took place with high regio- and diastereoselectivity and yields ranging from 40 to 85%. We thank the continued financial support from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO; projects CTQ2014-53695-P and CTQ2014-51912-REDC), the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO 2009/039 and PROMETEOII/2014/017) and the University of Alicante.

The palladium-catalyzed allylation of N-tert-butanesulfinyl imines with allylic alcohols in the presence of InI as reducing reagent takes place with high diastereoselectivity in reasonable yields. The reaction with crotyl alcohol is totally regioselective, leading to the anti-diastereomer as the main reaction product. Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Grant No. CTQ2011-24165), the Generalitat Valenciana (Grant No. PROMETEO/2009/039 and FEDER) and the University of Alicante. OSRB thanks CNPq of Brazil for a fellowship.