Addition - ring opening of the nitrooxazole 2a with diverse amino nucleophiles afforded directly the polyfunctionalized nitroenamines 7a-g in good to excellent yields. At the same time, highly diastereoselective cascade reactions, easily performed both on 2a-c with the ynamine 8 and 2b with the enol ether 13, led to the novel polycyclic systems 12a-c and 15, respectively, (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.