3-Quinuclidinol acts as a chiral building block for various antimuscarinic agents and other active pharmaceutical ingredients. It serves as a catalyst for condensation of methyl vinyl ketone with aldehydes. It is also used as a reagent for cleavage of beta-keto and vinylogous beta-keto esters. Further, it plays an important role as a synthon in the preparation of cholinergic receptor ligands and anesthetics. In addition to this, it is used in chemoselective alfa-iodination of acrylic esters through Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction.
