The general outline for the organic synthesis of a CBS catalyst is shown below. The first leg of the reaction sequence starts from the azeotropic dehydration of a boronic acid (1) such as one based on toluene to a boroxine (2). This boroxine reacts with the proline derivative (3d) to form the basic oxazaborolidine CBS catalyst (4). The oxazaborolidine was first developed as a ketone reducing agent by the laboratory of Itsuno, and thus is more properly called the Itsuno-Corey oxazaborolidine.  Proline derivative 3d is prepared in a separate leg from a Grignard reaction with Grignard reagent 3c and proline ester 3b. A Lewis acid superacid salt (6) can be obtained with the aid of triflic acid (5). Many other such catalysts exist with different derivatives of these reactants.