Deprotection of durable benzenesulfonyl protection for phenols — efficient synthesis of polyphenols

A robust protection method for phenol was demonstrated by the use of durable benzenesulfonyl group, which survives various harsh reaction conditions using Grignard reagent, organolithium reagent, metal alkoxide, phosgene, mineral, and Lewis acids. A facile deprotection condition utilizing pulverized KOH (5 equiv) and t-BuOH (10 equiv) in hot toluene makes this protocol as a practical method, which can be applied to the multistep synthesis of biologically and medicinally important polyphenol compounds.