Acetic Acid → 1,2,3,4-Tetrahydro-7-phenylmethoxycyclopent[b]indole-2-carboxylic acid ethyl ester

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Reaction Steps

To 250 ml of 80% acetic acid in water, were added 4-phenylmethoxyphenylhydrazine hydrochloride (30 g, 0.12 mole) and 3-oxocyclopentane carboxylic acid ethyl ester (20 g, 0.13 mole). After stirring at ambient temperature for one hour and then at 100° C. for four hours, the mixture was cooled and poured into one liter of water. After stirring for five minutes, the mixture was extracted with ethyl acetate (3×). The organic layer was washed successively with water (2×) and saturated sodium chloride solution, and thereafter dried over anhydrous MgSO4. After filtering, the solution was concentrated to a dark oil (~48 g), which was eluted on a silica gel column with 5% ethyl acetate/dichloromethane via HPLC. The desired fractions were combined and concentrated to give the product as a thick brown oil (24.1 g).

Provenance & Evidence