An efficient preparation of N-acetyl enamides catalyzed by Ru(II) complexes

Abstract Reductive acetylation of ketoximes to give the corresponding acyl enamides can be achieved by using 1–3 mol % of [RuCl 2 ( p -cymene)] 2 as the catalyst in the presence of KI as the reducing agent in high yields. This procedure has been applied to synthesize N -[1-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)-1-butenyl]acetamide ( 6 ), which is the intermediate for the synthesis of DMP 777, an inhibitor of leukocyte elastase.