A mixture of (4-nitro-2-phenylbenzoyl)methionine methyl ester (7.69 g, 30 mmol), prepared as in Example 192A and aqueous saturated lithium hydroxide (20 mL) in methanol (50 mL) was refluxed for 6 hours. The reaction mixture was carefully acidified with concentrated hydrochloric acid (10 mL), and extracted with ethyl acetate (4×). The combine extracts were washed with brine, dried over anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered and concentrated in vacuo. The residue was dissolved in dichloromethane (50 mL) and THF (10 mL) and 2-trimethylsilylethanol (3.72 g, 31.5 mmol), 1,3-diisopropylcarbodiimide (5.17 mL, 33 mmol) and 4-dimethylaminopyridine (30 mg) were added sequentially. After 4 hours, aqueous hydrochloric acid (0.1 N, 0.5 mL) was added and the reaction mixture was stirred for another 2 hours. The reaction mixture was then filtered through silica gel (40 g), and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo. The residue was purified by column chromatography (5% ethyl ether-hexane) to give the title compound (8.90 g, 87%).
