Sweets for Catalysis - Facile Optimisation of Carbohydrate-Based Bis(oxazoline) Ligands (Eur. J. Org. Chem. 7/2009)

The cover picture shows various uses for carbohydrates in nature: Chitin in the exoskeleton of crustaceans (lower left corner), cellulose in plants (upper right corner) and as the energy‐storage compound sucrose in plants, which ultimately makes its way into sweets such as candy canes. In the laboratory, carbohydrates can be transformed into interesting and versatile tools for stereoselective synthesis such as chiral ligands for asymmetric catalysis. The article by M. M. K. Boysen on p. 997 ff describes carbohydrate‐based bis(oxazoline) ligands. These sweets for catalysis were successfully fine‐tuned for asymmetric cyclopropanation reactions by the introduction of O‐substituents with varying steric and electronic properties. The authors thank Anja Glinschert for her help with the cover design. Financial support of the German Research Foundation, VolkswagenFoundation and Fonds der Chemischen Industrie is gratefully acknowledged.