Water → 1,2,3,4-Tetrahydro-7-phenylmethoxy-4-methycyclopent[b]indole-2-carboxylic acid ethyl ester

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Reaction Steps

To a suspension of sodium hydride (60% in oil, 3.0 g, 0.075 mole) in 25 ml of dry dimethylformamide, was added a solution of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-7-phenylmethoxycyclopent[b]indole-2-carboxylic acid ethyl ester (23.5 g, 0.07 mole) in 100 ml of dry dimethylformamide. After stirring at ambient temperature for two hours, a solution of methyl iodide (4.7 ml, 0.075 mole) in 20 ml of dimethylformamide was added, and the mixture was stirred at 70° C. for five hours. After cooling, the mixture was poured into 500 ml of water, stirred for five minutes, and then extracted with ethyl acetate (3×). The organic layer was washed successively with water and saturated sodium chloride solution, and dried over anhydrous MgSO4. After filtering, the solvent was evaporated to afford a brown oil (~25 g), which was eluted on a silica gel column with 5% ethyl acetate/dichloromethane via HPLC. The desired fraction was concentrated to a thick brown oil, 20.6 g, which solidified on cooling, m.p. 90°-95° C. A sample of this material was recrystallized from ethanol to give the product as an off-white solid, m.p. 109°-110° C.

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