In search of simplicity and flexibility: a rational access to twelve fluoroindolecarboxylic acids

All twelve indolecarboxylic acids carrying both a fluorine substituent and a carboxy group at the benzo ring have been prepd. either directly from the corresponding fluoroindoles or from the chlorinated derivs. by hydrogen/metal permutation ("metalation"), or from the bromo- or iodofluoroindoles by halogen/metal permutation, the organometallic intermediate being each time trapped with carbon dioxide. In most, though not all cases, the nitrogen atom in the five-membered ring had to be protected by a trialkylsilyl group. Some of the bromo- or iodofluoroindoles were successfully subjected to a basicity gradient-driven selective migration of the heavy halogen. An unexpected finding on the way to the target compds. were the rigorously site-selective metalation of the 5-fluoro-N-(trialkylsilyl)indole (exclusive deprotonation of the 4-position). The fluoroindoles, although previously known, were accessed more conveniently from suitably substituted nitrobenzenes using the Bartoli or the Leimgruber-Batcho method. A new and very attractive indole synthesis was elaborated consisting of the ortho-lithiation of an N-acyl-protected aniline followed by ortho-formylation, Wittig chloromethylenation and base-catalyzed cyclization accompanied by dehydrochlorination. These five consecutive steps can be contracted to a convenient one-pot protocol. [on SciFinder (R)]