The Biginelli Reaction Is a Urea-Catalyzed Organocatalytic Multicomponent Reaction

The recently developed artificial force induced reaction (AFIR) method was applied to search systematically all possible multicomponent pathways for the Biginelli reaction mechanism. The most favorable pathway starts with the condensation of the urea and benzaldehyde, followed by the addition of ethyl acetoacetate. Remarkably, a second urea molecule catalyzes nearly every step of the reaction. Thus, the Biginelli reaction is a urea-catalyzed multicomponent reaction. The reaction mechanism was found to be identical in both protic and aprotic solvents.