Water → Thebaine

Participants

Reaction Steps

Codeinone (300 g) was added to a stirred suspension of potassium tert-butoxide (153 g) in N,N-dimethylformamide (5 ml) at room temperature. After 10 minutes, methyl trifluoromethanasulphonate (164 mg) was added dropwise to the suspension. The solution was stirred for 5 minutes, diluted with ethyl acetate (30 ml), and then poured into water (50 ml). The aqueous phase was removed, and the organic phase was dried with sodium sulphate and evaporated, producing an orange solid. Analysis by HPLC Against pure thebaine gave a thebaine content of 10%.

Provenance & Evidence