An early C-symmetric ligand, diphosphine catalytic ligand DIPAMP, was developed in 1968 by William S. Knowles and coworkers of Monsanto Company, who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This ligand was used in the industrial production of -DOPA.
Some classes of C-symmetric ligands are called privileged ligands, which are ligands that are broadly applicable to multiple catalytic processes, not only a single reaction type.