Friedel-Crafts reaction with cyclic anhydrides

Clemmensen reaction. The Clemmensen method of reduction (1913) consists in refluxing a ketone with amalgamated zinc and hydrochloric acid. Acetophenone, for example, is reduced to ethylbenzene. The method is applicable to the reduction of most aromatic-aliphatic ketones to at least some aliphatic and alicyclic ketones, to the y-keto acids obtainable by Friedel-Crafts condensations with succinic anhydride (succinolylation), and to the cyclic ketones formed by intramolecular condensation. 

Friedel-Crafts acylation can be carried out with cyclic anhydrides,272 in which case the product contains a carboxyl group in the side chain. When succinic anhydride is used, the product is ArCOCH2CH2COOH. This can be reduced (9-37) to A1CH2CH2CFLCOOH, which can then be cyclized by an internal Friedel-Crafts acylation. The total process is called the Haworth reaction 173... 

Naphthalene, anthracene and phenantlirene can be prepared by an intramolecular Friedel-Crafts reaction in which initially a cyclic anhydride reacts with benzene or naphthalene. 

Haworth reaction A reaction in which an aryl compound is treated with a cyclic anhydride, such as succinic anhydride, and the intermediate Friedel-Crafts product is reduced and then cyclised via an internal Friedel-Crafts reaction to give a 1,2-disubstituted aromatic compound with a carbonyl group in the new ring. The whole sequence is called the Haworth reaction. 

The Friedel-Crafts reaction is also effective on anhydrides and goes once only with cyclic anhydrides. Compound (26) was used in the synthesis of fungicidal compounds, ... 

The alkylaluminum halide-induced Friedel-Crafts acylation is a very general and synthetically useful reaction that allows the functionalization of unsaturated fatty compounds. Acylations were carried out with different acylating agents such as acyl chlorides, dicarboxylic acid dichlorides, cyclic anhydrides, unsaturated acyl chlorides, and aromatic and heteroaromatic carboxylic acid chlorides, yielding a large... 

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