Inside Cover: Chiral Ammonium Betaine‐Catalyzed Highly Stereoselective Aza‐Henry Reaction of α‐Aryl Nitromethanes with Aromatic N ‐Boc Imines (Chem. Asian J. 2/2015)

Organocatalysis Chiral 1,2‐diarylethylenediamine skeletons constitute the core structures of various therapeutic agents and chiral catalysts/ligands. However, methods for their asymmetric synthesis have been extremely limited. In their Communication on page 334 ff. , featured on the Inside Cover, Takashi Ooi et al. report a simple and broadly useful protocol for rapid access to structurally diverse anti ‐1,2‐diarylethylenediamine derivatives, which is based on the highly stereoselective aza‐Henry reaction of α‐aryl nitromethanes and N ‐Boc arylaldimines catalyzed by C 1 ‐symmetric chiral ammonium betaine.