A new class of task-specific ionic liquids (ILs) which contain septuply positively charged {Fe(3)(III)O(RCOO)(6)L(3)}(7+) triangles has been synthesized and structurally characterized. Such metal-containing ILs can be repeatedly used as alternative catalysts in the synthesis of 2-pyrrolo-3'-yloxindole or the condensation of indoles with various aldehydes.

Abstract:The paper presents an application of the asymmetry approach to spirooxindoles via Brevicolline, Cinchonidine or Cinchonine catalyzed one-pot multicomponent synthesis. Brevicolline, in comparison with Cinchonidine or Cinchonine, catalyzes the reaction of isatins, acetylacetone/ethyl 3-oxobutanoate and malononitrile, with the formation of spiro [oxindole-3,4'-4'H-pirane] derivatives in an optically active form in very good to excellent yields.

Abstract. Interaction of N-ethyl isatin 3 with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate in the presence triphenylphosphine has led to good selectivity of methyl 1'-ethyl-4-methoxy-2',5-dioxo-5H-spiro[furan-2,3'-indoline]-3-carboxylate 4 formation. Similar yields of spirolactones 6,8 were obtained by addition of dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate to 5-bromo functionalized isatins 5,7. However, reaction of N-butyl isatin 9 resulted in formation of an inseparable mixture of compounds. Treatment of N-benzyl isatin 10 and dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate with triphenylphosphine proceeded with reduced selectivity of the spirooxindole 11 formation.Keywords: spirolactones, isatins, triphenylphosphine, dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate. IntroductionThe widespread distribution of butenolides in naturally occurring [1-3] and synthetic bioactive substances strongly motivate an interest for improving the methodology of the selective synthesis of butenolide functionalized spirooxindoles in high yield [4,5]. Such developments are of interest not only for the possible total synthesis of therapeutically useful spirooxindoles [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], but also for the preparation of synthetic analogs [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] in order to improve our knowledge in structure-activity relationships [12-14, 31, 32]. So-called butenolide functionalized spirooxindoles 1 provide the most interesting subject for synthetic investigations in view of the large and ever increasing number of the members of this family which have furan-2(5H)-one 2 as a building block (Scheme 1).