The Direct Catalytic Asymmetric Cross-Aldol Reaction of Aldehydes

Although the more elegant and most economically attractive way to introduce chirality into a molecule is by using a catalytic amount of chiral controller to induce chiral transformation without the need for any other activation of the starting materials, the first report of chemical catalysis for the direct catalytic asymmetric cross‐aldol reaction of aldehydes has only recently appeared (see scheme).