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What is light?

Synthesis

All organic compounds needed in our research have been prepared by ourselves. The following synthetic route had been established by Kishi-Goto group of Nagoya University in 1960's. The route is promising way to obtain coelenterazines to proceed our research. Three aromatic compounds were condensed to afford coelenterazines.

fig

The following scheme shows the preparation of keto-aldehyde (a component of coelenterazines).

fig

This route is quite excellent because all the compounds are easily purified by distillation or recrystallization. We have tried to reduce the number of synthetic steps, however, our route needed purifications by using a column chromatography to remove unfavorable side products. We currently try to improve our reaction efficiency to reduce side products based on the notion of green chemistry.