6‐[3‐(1‐Adamantyl)‐4‐methoxyphenyl]‐2‐naphthoic acid (1), a promising new compound for the treatment of disorders of keratinization, has been synthesized in [14C]‐labelled form from barium [14C]‐carbonate via labelled benzene. Benzene‐[U‐14C] was converted to 4‐bromo‐methoxybenzene‐[phenyl‐U‐14C] in six steps. Introduction of the adamantyl ring was carried out using 1‐acetoxyadamantane under acid catalysis. 2‐(1‐Adamantyl)‐4‐bromo‐methoxybenzene‐[phenyl‐U‐14C] (2) was converted to a zincate and coupled with methyl 6‐bromo‐2‐naphthoate using a nickel catalyst. The product of the aryl coupling reaction (3) was then saponified to give 6‐[3‐(1‐adamantyl)‐4‐methoxyphenyl‐[phenyl‐U‐14C]]‐2‐naphthoic acid.

SUMMARYA four step synthesis of [5,8, from [14Cl-labelled acetylene is described. [ I k2l-acetylene was converted to 5-chloro-[l,2-14Cl-pentyne via reaction of its monolithium salt with 3-bromo-1 -chloropropane. The doubly labelled 5-chloropentyne thus obtained was transformed to [5,6-14Cl-hex-5-ynoic acid which was then coupled with 1 -chloro-tetradeca-2.5-diyne to give the title compound. Using 242-aminoethoxy)ethanol and 1 -(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine, amides and (31, which had previously been found to be potent inhibitors of the 5-lipoxygenase enzyme, were prepared from [ 14Cl-labelled eicosatriynoic acid by way of acylimidazole chemistry.