Critical view on the recent enantioselective synthesis of alcohols, amines and related molecules having tertiary benzylic stereocenter

Abstract Stereochemically defined enantioenriched molecules were, are and will always be playing a pivotal role in the development of novel pharmaceutical agents. On this line, compounds having tertiary benzylic stereocenter are of special note. This has led to an increase in the development of novel synthetic strategies for accessing molecules having this structural moiety. The current critical discussion proposes to describe the various synthetic methodologies for the enantioselective synthesis of diaryl methanols, diarylmethyl amines and other related scaffolds with tertiary benzylic stereogenic center that came up during 1995–2016. Through this critical view, we would not only like to give the readers a brief outlook on the different techniques that can be followed for the synthesis of a vast array of entities having this structural core, but also would like to highlight the limitations the protocols that need to be addressed.