To a flame dried 500 mL 3-neck flask under an atmosphere of argon, was charged n-propyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (12.66 g, 32.85 mmol) dissolved in anhydrous THF (85 mL), followed by the dropwise addition of n-butyllithium 16.4 mL, 26.28 mmol). The dark red mixture was stirred at ambient temperature for 1 h. 15 min. Next 4-benzyloxy-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde (1.5 g, 6.57 mmol) (Synth. Commun., 26(3), 593-601, (1996) was added followed by the addition of anhydrous dichloromethane (27 mL). The mixture was stirred at ambient temperature for 18 h. The solvents were removed in vacuo, and the residue was partitioned between ethyl acetate and water (500 mL each). The organic layer was washed with brine (500 mL), dried (Na2SO4), and concentrated in vacuo. The crude product was purified using the Biotage FlashElute chromatography system using a 65M normal phase cartridge, eluting with 15% ethyl acetate/Hex to give a yellow solid (1.50 g, 90%). 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3) δ7.43-7.30 (m, 5H), 7.19 (d, J=8.3 Hz, 1H), 6.52 (dd, J=8.8, 2.4 Hz, 1H), 6.46 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 6.43 (s, 1H), 6.14-6.07 (m, 1H), 5.03 (s, 2H), 4.98 (s, 1H), 2.25 (quintet, J=7.6 Hz, 2H), 1.09 (t, J=7.3 Hz, 3H), MS (ES) m/e 255 (M+1).
