5-Fluorouracil → 5-Fluoro-3-methylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione

Participants

Reaction Steps

5-Fluorouracil, namely Compound (5) (1.30 g; 10 mmol), methyl iodide (CH3I) (2.13 g; 15 mmol) and potassium carbonate (0.69 g; 5 mmol) were added to acetone (20 ml), and the resulting mixture was stirred at 60°-70° C. for 24 hours. The reaction solution obtained was filtered to remove potassium carbonate, and the filtrate was concentrated under reduced pressure. To the resulting residue was added a small volume of chloroform, and then the residue was fractionated by column chromatography on silica gel (eluent: chloroform) to isolate 5-fluoro-3-methyluracil, namely Compound (6) shown above (355 mg) as white needle-like crystals.

Provenance & Evidence