Recent progress on the iterative construction of 4-substituted-3-hydroxy benzoic acids from unsaturated aldehydes and dimethyl succinate

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/S0040-4020(97)01054-5

An improvement of a known two step cyclization procedure, affording 4-aryl-3-hydroxy benzoic acid derivatives from 3-aryl-2,3-unsaturated aldehydes and dimethyl succinate, is described. The high versatility of the synthetic procedure is shown, as the aryl substituent can be a benzene or naphthalene moiety, or an heteroaromatic ring. It can be applied iteratively to prepare p,p'-oligophenyl derivatives.