Enantioselective synthesis of cis-hydrobenzofurans bearing all-carbon quaternary stereocenters and application to total synthesis of (‒)-morphine

Abstract

(‒)-Morphine is an essential medicine selected by the World Health Organization, however its catalytic asymmetric syntheses have been rarely reported. Here, the authors developed an intramolecular enantioselective Michael addition leading to (‒)-morphine in a longest linear sequence of 16 steps.