Useful Dienophile

3-Acryloyl-2-oxazolidinone (1) is a dienophile that is useful in the asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction. The dienophile 1 reacts with various dienes in the presence of chiral Lewis acids to form chiral Diels-Alder cycloadducts. The prepared adducts are used for the syntheses of various biologically active substances. For example, Evans and his coworkers used 1 in the asymmetric syntheses of ent-shikimic acids, and ent-^Δ1-tetra-hydrocannabinol.¹⁾