C- and N-Selective Grignard Addition Reactions of a-Aldimino Esters in the Presence or Absence of Zinc(II) Chloride: Synthetic Applications to Optically Active Azacycles.

Highly practical synthetic methods were developed for the C- and N-selective Grignard addition reactions of N-4-MeOC6H4-protected a-aldimino esters in the presence or absence of zinc(II) chloride. Diastereoselective C-alkyl addition, tandem C-alkyl addition-N-alkylation, and some transformations to synthetically useful optically active azacycles were demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]