Formic Acid → N-[2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)ethyl]formamide

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

Formic acid (230 g, 5.0 mol) is added dropwise to acetic anhydride (383 g, 3.75 mol) at 0° C. This mixture is stirred for 2 hours at +55° C. and subsequently cooled again to 0° C. Tetrahydrofuran (500 ml) is added at this temperature followed by 4-(2-amino-ethyl)-2-methoxy-phenol hydrochloride (50 g, 0.25 mol). The resulting white suspension is stirred for 18 hours at +75° C., changing into a yellow solution. The reaction mixture is evaporated and the residue is submitted to flash-chromatography to yield N-[2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-phenyl)-ethyl]-formamide. 1H-NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3, δ(ppm)): 2.85 (t, 2H, CH2CH2), 3.57 (t, 2H, CH2CH2), 3.82 (s, 3H, OCH3), 5.69 (bs, 1H, NH), 6.67–7.09 (m, 3H, CH arom.), 8.12 (s, 1H, CHO).

Provenance & Evidence