Photocyclizations of pharmacodynamic amines. V. Unusual rearrangements of the mescaline skeleton
Journal of the American Chemical Society September 1, 1970 Osamu Yonemitsu, Hideo Nakai, Yuichi Kanaoka et al. 20 citations
The mescaline skeleton undergoes unusual rearrangements during photocyclization reactions. Irradiation of certain mescaline derivatives leads to products formed through unexpected bond cleavages and recombinations, rather than simple cyclization. The structures of the photoproducts were determined by spectroscopic methods and X-ray crystallography. The rearrangements involve migration of the trimethoxyphenyl group and formation of new carbon-nitrogen bonds, producing heterocyclic compounds not previously accessible by other routes. These findings illustrate the complexity of photochemical transformations in pharmacologically relevant amines and provide new synthetic pathways to novel ring systems.