Ethyl -4-carboxylate (CAS NO.: ), with other name of -4-carboxylic acid ethyl ester, could be produced through many synthetic methods.

Following is one of the reaction routes:

The hydrolysis of diethyl imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylate (I) with aqueous NaOH gives imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid (II), which is partially decarboxylated by treatment with refluxing aniline yielding 4-anilinocarbonylimidazole (III). The hydrolysis of (III) with refluxing aqueous HCl affords (IV), which is finally esterified with ethanol and dry HCl at reflux temperature.