Acetaldehyde: Doebner reaction with

Ootonic acid may be prepared by condensing acetaldehyde with malonic acid in pyridine solution in the presence of a trace of piperidine (Doebner reaction see discussion following Section IV,123). 

In 1883, Bottinger described the reaction of aniline and pyruvic acid to yield a methylquinolinecarboxylic acid. He found that the compound decarboxylated and resulted in a methylquinoline, but made no effort to determine the position of either the carboxylic acid or methyl group. Four years later, Doebner established the first product as 2-methylquinoline-4-carboxylic acid (8) and the second product as 2- methylquinoline (9). Under the reaction conditions (refluxing ethanol), pyruvic acid partially decarboxylates to provide the required acetaldehyde in situ. By adding other aldehydes at the beginning of the reaction, Doebner found he was able to synthesize a variety of 2-substituted quinolines. While the Doebner reaction is most commonly associated with the preparation of 2-aryl quinolines, in this primary communication Doebner reported the successful use of several alkyl aldehydes in the quinoline synthesis. 

The Doebner reaction can provide the 4-carboxyl quinoline when the Pfitzinger reaction does not." Pfiztinger reaction of pinnacolone with isatin did not provide the desired quinoline. Doebner reaction of aniline with acetaldehyde and pyruvic acid did furnish the quinoline, albeit in only 8% yield. 

Simple aliphatic aldehydes and ketones cannot be used as the carbonyl component in the Perkin reaction. Knoevenagel5 reported the successful condensation of aldehydes and ketones with malonic acid in the presence of ammonia or amines. The most satisfactory method uses pyridine as a catalyst and is known as the Doebner modification.6 Thus, acetaldehyde 18 reacts with malonic acid (19) in the presence of a pyridine catalyst to afford the acid 20 in 60% yield. 

In a reaction which is mechanistically related to the Skraup reaction an a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compound, generated by way of an acid-catalysed aldol condensation, reacts with a primary aromatic amine in the presence of acid to yield a quinoline derivative (Doebner-Miller reaction). For example, when aniline is heated with paraldehyde (which depolymerises to acetaldehyde during the reaction) in the presence of hydrochloric acid the final product is 2-methyl-quinoline (101) (quinaldine, Expt 8.40). Retrosynthetic analysis for the 1,2-dihydroquinoline reveals crotonaldedhyde as the unsaturated carbonyl component which is in turn formed from acetaldehyde (see Section 5.18.2, p. 799). 

Reaction of a primary aromatic amine (such as aniline) with a carhonyl compound such as acetaldehyde, in the presence of acid, also generates a 2-alkylquinoline in the Doebner-Miller reaction. Reaction of aniline with acetaldehyde gave 262, but a subsequent aldol condensation with the imine derived from acetaldehyde (sec. 9.4.F.i) led to 263.1 Friedel-Crafts cyclization was followed by loss of aniline to give 264, and aromatization gave 2-methylquinoline (265). 

---