Indium‐Catalyzed Retro‐Claisen Condensation

Retro-aldol reaction: Indium-catalyzed reaction of a 1,3-diketone with an alcohol proceeds under solvent-free conditions by nucleophilic attack of the alcohol on a carbonyl group of the 1,3-diketone and carbon–carbon bond cleavage by a retro-Claisen condensation to give an ester in high yield (see scheme). Using water and an amine as nucleophiles instead of an alcohol gave the corresponding carboxylic acid and amide. Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under http://www.wiley-vch.de/contents/jc_2002/2007/z702798_s.pdf or from the author. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.