Methanol → Methyl 4-(oxiran-2-yl)butanoate

Participants

Reaction Steps

67.9 mg (0.492 mmol) of potassium carbonate were added to a mixture of 48.7 mg (0.328 mmol) of (-)-6-chloromethyltetrahydropyran-2-one obtained in Example 5 and 1 ml of methanol under water cooling, and the solution was then stirred for 30 minutes and further at room temperature for 5 hours. After distilling off with methanol, 10% hydrochloric acid was added to the resultant residue to neutralize the same, and it was then extracted with dichloromethane, followed by drying over anhydrous magnesium sulfate. The solvent was distilled off to obtain 35.4 mg (yield 75%) of pure (-)-methyl 5,6-epoxyhexanoate [a compound of the formula (6')] as the residue. The values of physical properties of this product were good and comparable to those of literature [M. Suzuki et al., Chem. Pharm. Bull., 38, 2381 (1990)].

Provenance & Evidence