Itaconic Acid as an Environmentally Benign Catalyst in Efficient and Scalable Synthesis of 3,4-Dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones

Abstract

An environmentally benign, efficient and scalable approach for the synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-(1H)-ones (DHPMs) is reported. The multi component one-pot reaction is catalysed by either itaconic acid or its salt, which are non-hazardous, readily available, mild and biodegradable with a simple workup procedure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of itaconic acid as a catalyst in organic transformation. Diverse and new challenging DHPMs have been synthesized using this methodology in excellent yields and in addition the practicality of the method is demonstrated on multi gram level.