Organocatalytic asymmetric reaction is an increasingly active area in organic synthesis. The asymmetric Michael addition provides a rapid access to versatile important chiral building blocks and intermediates for the synthesis of bioactive agrochemicals and pharmaceutical compounds. The reported organocatalyst for asymmetric Michael additions include proline and its derivatives, chiral imidazolidinone derivatives, chiral (thio) urea, cinchona alkaloids and so on. The applications of various organocatalysts to asymmetric Michael additions are reviewed in this paper. The reaction mechanism, catalytic activity and the asymmetric induction influenced by the structure of organocatalysts and the reaction condition are also discussed.

Key words: enantioselectivity, asymmetric Michael addition, organocatalysis