Copper-Catalyzed Arylation of o-Bromoanilides: Highly Flexible Synthesis of Hexahydropyrroloindole Alkaloids

In the presence of catalytic amount of copper iodide, a remote amide-assisted intramolecular arylation followed by alkylation leads to a general and flexible synthetic method toward the synthesis of medicinally interesting hexahydropyrroloindole alkaloids.