“…When other catalysts such as piperidine, Et 3 N, DIPEA, methyl glycinate, pyridine, proline and proline derivatives were screened, no better result was obtained (Table 1, entries 3-9). Methyl glycinate (1e), a primary amine, was employed as a catalyst too, and the monocondensation product 4a was obtained in 22% yield (Table 1, Proline, a prominent catalyst, had been used previously in aldol reactions between cyclic ketones and aldehydes, but when proline was used in this reaction, no product was detected, and not even the aldol product was detected ( [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Although the reaction solvents influenced the rate of the reaction, they did not affect the formation of (E)-4a as single product during the course of reaction, regardless of the protic or aprotic nature of the solvent.…”