Frontispiece: Catalytic Asymmetric Bromination of Unfunctionalized Olefins with H 2 O as a Nucleophile

Asymmetric Bromohydroxylation The formation of halohydrins via halonium ion intermediates with H 2 O is a classic route to the halogenation of olefins and has great synthetic value. An asymmetric version of this process is thus highly desirable. The dimeric cinchona alkaloid (DHQD) 2 PHAL has been used to catalyze an effective asymmetric bromohydroxylation of unfunctionalized olefins with H 2 O as nucleophile and N ‐bromobenzamide as a bromine source, as discussed by Y. Shi et al. in their Commmunication on page 11658 ff. , affording a variety of optically active bromohydrins with up to 88 %  ee.