Chiral Amino and Imino-Alcohols Based on (R)-Limonene

Derivatives of the natural occurring and inexpensive terpene (R) -limonene were synthetized and completely characterized. Starting from internal olefin epoxidation, followed by epoxide opening with sodium azide and azide reduction with LiAlH4, two chiral amino-alcohols were obtained. The amino-alcohols were reacted with three different aldehydes, generating six new imino-alcohols, two of them yielding crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction characterization. The reduction of four of these compounds with LiAlH4 led to new amino-alcohols. All derivatives were obtained with good overall yields through simple reaction protocols.