Ruthenium‐Catalyzed Enantioselective Synthesis of β‐Amino Alcohols from 1,2‐Diols by “Borrowing Hydrogen”

Abstract Enantioselective synthesis of β‐amino alcohols from 1,2‐diols by the use of [RuCl 2 ( p ‐cymene)] 2 /( S , R )‐JOSIPHOS catalysis was developed. Several 1,2‐diols were treated with secondary amines to afford the corresponding optically active β‐amino alcohols in up to 99 % yield with 77 % ee .