A novel and facile route for the synthesis of medetomidine as the α2-adrenoceptor agonist

We report here a novel and facile method for the synthesis of (±)-4(5)-[1-(2,3-dimethylphenyl)ethyl]-1H-imidazole (medetomidine) in a good yield in five steps. The method involves Wittig olefination of the phenylimidazolylketones, followed by a hydrogenation. We demonstrate that the Wittig alkenylation reaction provides a convenient step for the synthesis of medetomidine without requiring methylation and dehydration steps, which are problematic processes in the previous methods. Novel route for the synthesis of medetomidine.