A mixture of 2-bromo-6-(piperidine-1-carbonyl)-cyclohexanone (20) (1.5 g, 5.2 mmol) and (2-benzyloxy-ethyl)-phenyl-amine (21) (3.2 g, 10.4 mmol) was stirred under N2 at 50° C. for 3 h and the reaction turned brown. The resulting mixture was dissolved in propan-2-ol (5 mL) and dry zinc chloride (2.13 g, 15.6 mmol) was added. The mixture was heated to reflux under N2 for 16 h and then concentrated in vacuo. The residue was dissolved in ethyl acetate (100 mL) and washed with 2 N HCl (30 mL), water (2×30 mL) and aqueous potassium carbonate solution (2×30 mL) then dried and concentrated in vacuo. The crude material was purified by SCX cartridge and then silica gel chromatography eluting with petrol (A) and ethyl acetate (B) (30-100% B, 12 g, 41 CV, 30 mL/min) to afford 600 mg (27%) of [9-(2-benzyloxy-ethyl)-2,3,4,9-tetrahydro-1H-carbazol-4-yl]-piperidin-1-yl-methanone (22) as an oil. The structure was confirmed by 13C NMR (75 MHz, CDCl3) δC 21.5, 21.7, 24.5, 25.7, 26.3, 273, 37.7, 42.8, 43.1, 46.7, 60.2, 68.7, 73.1, 108.2, 108.7, 117.8, 118.9, 120.5, 126.4, 127.3, 127.4, 128.1, 136.2, 137.8, 172.9.
