Pauli L Tannert R Scheil R Pfaltz A 2015 Enantioselective hydrogenation of furans and benzofurans remains a challenging task. We report the hydrogenation of 2- and 3-substituted furans by using iridium catalysts that bear bicyclic pyridine-phosphinite ligands. Excellent enantioselectivities and high conversions were obtained for monosubstituted furans with a 3-alkyl or 3-aryl group. Furans substituted at the 2-position and 2,4-disubstituted furans proved to be more difficult substrates. The best results (80-97% conversion, 65-82% enantiomeric excess) were obtained with monosubstituted 2-alkylfurans and 2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]furan. Benzofurans with an alkyl substituent at the 2- or 3-position also gave high conversions and enantioselectivity, whereas 2-aryl derivatives showed essentially no reactivity. The asymmetric hydrogenation of a 3-methylbenzofuran derivative was used as a key step in the formal total synthesis of the cytotoxic naphthoquinone natural product (-)-thespesone. https://sonar.rero.ch/global/documents/232069 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1002/chem.201404903 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/25394881 Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany). - 2015 N,P ligands asymmetric catalysis benzofurans furans iridium Benzofurans Catalysis Furans Hydrogenation Iridium Organophosphorus Compounds Pyridines Stereoisomerism Asymmetric hydrogenation of furans and benzofurans with iridium-pyridine-phosphinite catalysts. http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501