Aldol reactions may proceed by two distinct mechanisms. Carbonyl compounds, such as aldehydes and ketones, can be converted to enols or enol ethers. These species, being nucleophilic at the α-carbon, can attack especially reactive protonated carbonyls such as protonated aldehydes. This is the enol mechanism. Carbonyl compounds, being carbon acids, can also be deprotonated to form enolates, which are much more nucleophilic than enols or enol ethers and can attack electrophiles directly. The usual electrophile is an aldehyde, since ketones are much less reactive. This is the enolate mechanism.
Despite the attractiveness of the aldol manifold, there are several problems that need to be addressed to render the process catalytic and effective. The first problem is a thermodynamic one: most aldol reactions are reversible. Furthermore, the equilibrium is also just barely on the side of the products in the case of simple aldehyde–ketone aldol reactions. If the conditions are particularly harsh (e.g.: NaOMe/MeOH/reflux), condensation may occur. However if an Aldol addition is desired, this can usually be avoided with mild reagents and low temperatures (e.g., LDA (a strong base), THF, −78 °C). Although aldol addition usually proceeds to near completion under irreversible conditions, the isolated aldol adducts are sensitive to base-induced retro-aldol cleavage to return starting materials. In contrast, retro-aldol condensations are rare, but possible. This is the basis of the catalytic strategy of class I aldolases in nature, as well as numerous small-molecule amine catalysts.