A practical method for the synthesis of highly enantioenriched trans-1,2-amino alcohols.

A highly enantioselective addition of phenyl carbamate to meso-epoxides has been developed to efficiently generate protected trans-1,2-amino alcohols. This transformation is promoted by an oligomeric (salen)Co-OTf catalyst and has been used to prepare two useful 2-aminocycloalkanol hydrochlorides in enantiopure form on a multigram scale from commercially available starting materials.