Mannich-Michael versus formal aza-Diels-Alder approaches to piperidine derivatives.

A review into the aza-Diels-Alder reaction, mainly concentrating on literature examples that form piperidin-4-ones from the reaction of imines and electron rich dienes or enones, either through a Lewis acidic/Brønsted acid approach or through the use of an organocatalyst. This review questions whether the mechanism of the aza-Diels-Alder reaction is step wise as opposed to concerted when using oxygenated dienes.