A novel and green protocol for two-carbon homologation:: a direct amino acid/K2CO3-catalyzed four-component reaction of aldehydes, active methylenes, Hantzsch esters and alkyl halides

A novel and green approach for the two-carbon homologation of aldehydes using amino acid catalysis has been developed and further extended to the generation of pharmaceutically active cyano-esters via four-component reactions in one-pot. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.