Cyanuric chloride catalyzed metal-free mild protocol for the synthesis of highly functionalized tetrahydropyridines

An environmentally benign, facile and elegant synthetic approach for the convenient access of a series of diverse 2,6-diaryl-tetrahydropyridine-3-carboxylates via a one-pot, pseudo five-component condensation of ethyl acetoacetate, anilines and aromatic aldehydes under mild reaction conditions has been described. This domino strategy allows rapid cyclization in the presence of 10 mol% of cyanuric chloride as a source of hydrochloric acid to afford the desired target skeletons in excellent yields. The present protocol offers prominent advantages of simple operational procedure, metal-free organocatalyst, practically robust and extensive substrate scope. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.