Preparation of laurel oil alkanolamide from laurel oil

A low-temperature synthesis of laurel oil alkanolamides directly from laurel oil and ethanolamine was carried out in essentially quantitative yields. The ethanolamine/laurel oil molar ratio used was 10:1. Even though amine served as a catalyst in the reaction, we used sodium methoxide at a ratio of 0.2-2% as a second catalyst. The reaction was complete in 1-9 h at room temperature. The identity of the amide was confirmed by IR and C-13 NMR spectroscopy.