Microwave Assisted Reduction of Chalcones: A Versatile Method

Although there are several methods of α,β unsaturated systems reduction, 1 but there are few effective methods for the reduction of chalcones to their respective saturated alcohols which opens possibilities for the development of new and attractive methods to obtain this type of system using microwaves irradiation 2 . The main goal of this work is to develop a new approach to racemic reduction of chalcones, with palladium assisted by microwave irradiation. The process use a cheap reducing agent, which decreased reaction times to minutes when compared to the conventional one. 3