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The importance of chirality is now well recognized in connection mainly with physiological and pharmacological properties of natural and artificial organic compounds as well as with the fundamental character of the tetrahedral carbon atom. The art of asymmetric synthesis has, on its evolutionary path based on the earlier studies of diatereoselectivity in the reaction of chiral molecules, now matured through auxiliaries-based methodologies to asymmetric catalysis and it is growing into a new way of producing optically active chiral compounds that is more general and efficient than enzymatic reaction. The importance of continued reagent development in these two areas can not be overemphasized. Not only has this allowed for the efficient synthesis of numerous enantiopure products, but it has also provided insights into many of the facts which contribute to the control of stereoselective processes. The relevant literature surrounding these developments has correspondingly grown almost exponentially over the last 25 years. Specific prominent classes of chiral auxiliary reagents have been emerged such as imidazolidinones, oxazolidinones and thiazolidinones.

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Alaa A.-M. Abdel-Aziz is an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the College of Pharmacy, King Saud University,Saudi Arabia. He got his Ph.D. from Kumamoto University, Japan in the field of Organic Chemistry. He received several national and international awards. His scientific production is reported in leading international journals.

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