One-pot approach to chiral chromenesvia enantioselective organocatalytic domino oxa-Michael–aldol reaction

A highly enantioselective (S)-diphenylpyrrolinol triethylsilyl ether promoted tandem oxa-Michael–aldol reaction of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes with salicylaldehydes has been developed; the method affords one-pot access to chiral and synthetically useful chromenes in high yields and high enantioselectivities from readily available compounds.