A 1.6M solution of butyl lithium in hexane (91 ml, 146 mmol) was placed in an oven-dried 500 ml 3-necked flask and cooled to 0° C. and then 22.5 ml (20.1 mmol) of tetramethylethylenediamine was added with stirring. After a 10 min reaction period, a solution of 18.3 g (133 mmol) of methoxymethoxybenzine was added and the mixture allowed to stir for about 3.5 hours at 0° C. 3,4-Dimethoxy-2-methoxymethoxybenzaldehyde (30.0 g, 133 mmol) in 18 ml of tetrahydrofuran was then added dropwise with stirring. The mixture was allowed to warm to room temperature and stir for 1 hour and was then quenched with 50 ml of saturated aqueous ammonium chloride. The resulting mixture was extracted with 200 ml of ethyl acetate three times. The combined extracts were dried over magnesium sulfate and concentrated by evaporation under reduced pressure to obtain 48.5 g of an oil. This was purified by silica gel chromatography on an 8 in diameter sintered glass funnel eluting with mixtures of hexane and dichloromethane increasing from 38 percent to 75 percent dichloromethane to obtain 32.2 g (68 percent of theory) of the title compound as a yellow oil. The proton and carbon NMR and infrared spectra were consistent with the assigned structure.
