Methanol → 2-(5-Methyl-2-phenyl-4-oxazolyl)ethanol

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

Methyl 2-(5-methyl-2-phenyl-4-oxazolyl)acetate (compound [5]; 170 g) obtained in Example 2 was dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (935 mL) and sodium borohydride (27.81 g) was added at room temperature. This suspension was heated to 60° C. and stirred, and methyl alcohol (57.9 mL) was added dropwise over 1 hr. After dropwise addition, the reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature and water (35 mL) was added dropwise. The mixture was stirred at room temperature for 1 hr and filtered to remove solid components. The solid components were washed with tetrahydrofuran and the washing was combined with the previous filtrate, which was followed by concentration under reduced pressure. Ethyl acetate (1 L) was added to the residue and after dissolution, water (1 L) was added for partitioning. The aqueous layer was again extracted with ethyl acetate (0.5 L), and the organic layers were combined and washed successively with saturated sodium hydrogencarbonate solution (1 L) and saturated brine (1 L) and dried over anhydrous magnesium sulfate. After filtration, the filtrate was concentrated under reduced pressure to give crude crystals (compound [6]; 149 g). The crystals were recrystallized from a mixed solvent of n-hexane (1 L) and ethyl acetate (0.2 L) to give the title compound (compound [6]; 134 g, yield 89.7%).

Provenance & Evidence