A New Process for Preparation of Hydroxytyrosol

Hydroxytyrosol is one of the major natural phenolic compounds, mainly in virgin olive oil and the wastewater generated from olive oil processing. Based on its strong antioxidation, hydroxytyrosol is widely used in medical treatment, food, beauty, and other industries. Its diverse biological activities have for a long time attracted considerable interest of synthetic and pharmacological areas. In this paper, the new process of hydroxytyrosol synthesis has been explored, which starts from catechol protection, followed by Friedel–Crafts reaction with ethyl oxalyl monochloride, then the Wolff-Kishner-Huang reaction and reduction reaction with LAH, and finally deprotection. The target compound was obtained by five-step reaction with an overall yield of 23 %. The title compound was characterized on the basis of 1 H NMR spectral.