Recent advances of chromone-based reactants in the catalytic asymmetric domino annulation reaction

Chiral polycyclic chromanones are important heterocyclic frameworks that constitute the core structures of many natural products and bioactive molecules. As starting materials, the chromone-based reactants are very efficient building blocks in the synthesis of these scaffolds, which could be achieved in one step via catalytic asymmetric annulation reactions and is difficult to duplicate with other strategies. In this review, the catalytic asymmetric domino annulation of polycyclic chromanones is summarized and classified according to the types of chromone-based reactants for the first time. Both organocatalysis and metallic organocatalysis of the asymmetric domino annulation reaction were described along with the catalytic mechanisms and related transformations.