Keywords: terpenoids, bromination, mono-and dibromo-derivatives, Meldrum's acid dibromide, oxidative brominating system.D-Dicarbonyl compounds have recently become interesting for broader application in organic synthesis because of their high reactivity. They are used to prepare aliphatic, aromatic, and heterocyclic low-and high-molecular-weight products with an array of valuable properties. Thus, several heterocyclic compounds such as imidazoles, quinoxalines, and pyrazines, i.e., a unique class of chiral N,N-coordinated ligands that are widely used in asymmetric synthesis [1,2], in addition to quinoline derivatives that usually exhibit various biological and pharmacological activities [3,4] were synthesized from terpene D-diketones.Oxidation of the corresponding D-bromoketones is one method for synthesizing D-diketones. The oxidation of 3-endo-bromocamphors by O 2 or air in aprotic polar solvents in the presence of NaI or KI to form camphoroquinone in high yield is well known [5,6]. In a similar manner, the cyclic D-diketones 1,2-cyclooctanedione and 1,2-cyclododecanedione were synthesized in 65-71% yield from D-bromoketones [7]. It was recently shown that biotransformation of D-bromo-and D,Dc-dibromoketones formed highly selectively D-hydroxyketones and diketones, respectively [8].The goal of the present work was to synthesize secondary D-bromoketones from isopinocamphone (1), cis-verbanone (2), and menthone (3) for possible further transformation into the corresponding D-diketones. The brominating reagents were Br 2 , CuBr 2 , Meldrum's acid dibromide, and the oxidative-brominating system Ce(III)-LiBr-H 2 O 2 .Attempted monobromination of isopinocamphone by Br 2 in AcOH (ketone-Br 2 mole ratio 1:1) formed mainly dibromoderivative 4 and monobromo-derivative 5 in yields of 48 and 12%, respectively, according to GC. Furthermore, the reaction products included pinocamphone (15%) and an insignificant (~2%) amount of 6. 2D,4D-Dibromopinanone-3 (4) was isolated by column chromatography over silica gel as a crystalline product. Br O Br + Br O + O Br 4 5 6 OH O a 7 1 b c 5 + 4 1 + + O Br d 9 Br O 8 Mixture of compounds a. Br 2 ; b. CuBr 2 ; c. Meldrum's acid dibromide; d. Ce(NO 3 ) 3 -LiBr-H 2 O 2