Loratadine → Desloratadine

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

A mixture of 4-(8-chloro-5,6-dihydrobenzo[5,6]cyclohepta[1,2-b]pyridin-11-ylidene)piperidine-1-carboxylic acid ethyl ester (loratadine) (50.0 g, 0.13 mol), and 90% v/v aqueous methanesulfonic acid (165 ml) was heated to 105-110° C. for 9 hrs. The reaction mass was cooled to ambient temperature, quenched into water (300 ml) and the resulting solution heated at 90-100° C. for 1 hour. The reaction mixture was cooled to ambient temperature and extracted once with toluene (100 ml). The pH of the aqueous layer was adjusted between 4.0 to 5.0 with liquor ammonia and charcoalized (2.5 g decolorizing charcoal). The pH of the charcoalized solution was adjusted to >9.5 with liquor ammonia, and the sticky semi-solid mass which separated was extracted into toluene (300 ml). The toluene extract was concentrated under reduced pressure at below 65° C. and degassed to obtain an off-white to white solid of desloratadine (yield 40.5 g, purity >99.0%). HPLC analysis of the sample (as per the procedure described in example 2) did not show any peak due to impurity at relative retention time of 0.85 to 0.99 (relative to desloratadine peak).

Provenance & Evidence