A highly selective synthesis of the indolo[2,3-a]quinolizine ring system and application to natural product synthesis

We present a facile and highly stereoselective approach to the indolo[2,3-a]quinolizine ring system from a readily available, non-racemic chiral template. We demonstrate the potential for application of this methodology to natural product synthesis through conversion of the template to some representative indole alkaloids with high enantiomeric purity in both enantiomeric series.