Organocatalytic tandem Morita–Baylis–Hillman–Michael reaction for asymmetric synthesis of a drug-like oxa-spirocyclic indanone scaffold

A novel multicatalytic MBH–Michael tandem reaction has been developed for the asymmetric assembly of ninhydrin, nitroolefins and aldehydes into a structurally complex oxa-spirocyclic indanone backbone. Successive iodocyclization allowed us to convert these multifunctional allylic products into fused chiral natural product mimics.