A mixture of 3.0 g (0.0116 mole) of (2-amino-4,5-dimethylphenyl)-(2-chlorophenyl)-methanone (Xw), 2.0 g (0.0116 mole) of 4-amino-5-chloro-3-methyl-1-(2-propenyl)-1H-pyrazole (XIII), 2.21 g (0.0116 mole) of p-toluenesulfonic acid monohydrate and 40 mL of isopropanol was heated in a sealed tube at 170° C. for 90 minutes. The mixture was concentrated under reduced pressure, and the residue was diluted with ethyl acetate and then washed twice with saturated sodium bicarbonate solution. The aqueous washes were reextracted with ethyl acetate, and the combined ethyl acetate layers were dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate, filtered and concentrated under reduced pressure. Trituration of the residue with hexane gave the intermediate 5-(2-chlorophenyl)-1,2-dihydro-3,7,8-trimethyl-1-(2-propenyl)-pyrazolo[3,4-b][1,4]benzodiazepine (XIVw), as a yellow solid. Purification of the filtrates by silica gel chromatography, eluting with ethyl acetate-dichloromethane (1:1) provided additional XIVw and was combined with the material obtained above for a total yield of 2.7 g of XIVw as a yellow solid, which was used directly in the next step.
