The above allyl alcohol (2.0 g, 4.94 mmol), methyl (4-hydroxy-2-methylphenoxy)acetate (1.08 g, 5.54 mmol; example 2) and triphenylphosphine (1.50 g, 6.02 mmol) were dissolved in a mixture of anhydrous toluene (40 mL) and tetrahydrofuran (20 mL). The mixture was cooled to 0° C., kept under argon and a degassed solution of diisopropyl azodicarboxylate (1.15 mL, 5.82 mmol) in anhydrous tetrahydrofuran (10 mL) was added dropwise during 10 min. The reaction mixture was allowed to warm up to ambient temperature with the bath and then was stirred for 20 h. The solvents were evaporated in vacuo and the residue was submitted to flash column chromatography (silica gel Fluka 60, hexanes/ethyl acetate 9:1) affording methyl (E)-[4-[3-(4-iodophenyl)-3-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl)allyloxy]-2-methylphenoxy]acetate as yellow oil.
