An Environmentally Friendly Route for the Synthesis of Benzofurane Derivatives using Selective Ring Acylation of Resorcinol

The synthesis of 2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-6-ol, an important intermediate for benzofurane derivatives having pharmaceutical activity, is achieved by an environmentally friendly pathway. Whereas the current synthesis method, based on resorcinol dimethylether, uses or produces harmful, corrosive and dangerous reagents/materials, the procedure proposed here achieves 60% preparative yield for the selective direct ring acylation of resorcinol with isobutyryl chloride, using a solvent-free reaction catalysed by solid acids.