A convenient and simple method is described for formally transferring a phthaloyl protecting group from one amino group to another in an unsymmetrical diamine. The NMR spectra of some of the amido intermediates reveal that, at room temperature, there is restricted rotation around N-C=O and, in some cases, C-C=O bonds in these molecules.The availability of the mono-protected diamine 1, defined as a seco-nucleoside, 1 (readily prepared 2 from the chloride 2 3 and ethanolamine hydrochloride) and the synthesis of potential biologically active derivatives based on manipulation of its free amino group 2 suggested that we should prepare the isomer 3 and convert this into the corresponding compounds 9 and 10. We now describe a simple twostep method whereby 1 can be converted into 3 (Scheme 1). This amounts to an effective transphthaloylation and avoids a lengthy process of selective protection and deprotection. While we demonstrated this formal transfer of a protecting phthaloyl entity from one amino group to another in a single system, it may be of use in others involving selective modification of unsymmetrical a,w-diamines such as lysine esters 4 or spermidine, 5 and in purpurosamine 6a and other diaminosugars. 6b-d o-(1-Pyrrolidinylcarbonyl)benzoic acid (4) 7-9 was converted into the mixed anhydride 5 7 , which on reaction with the amine 1 afforded the diamidophthalimide 6 (Scheme 1). Treatment of this with hydrazine hydrate at -15°C gave the amidohydrazide 7, which was not isolated but reacted with aqueous methanolic hydrochloric acid at 20°C to afford the amine salt (3·HCl). This process involves ring closure of the o-(1-pyrrolidinylcarbonyl)benzamide unit 10 to give the N-substituted phthalimide, and cleavage of the (N-aminocarbamoyl)benzamide unit to liberate the amine as the salt (3·HCl) with elimination of phthalohydrazide 11 . The amine 3 was further characterised as the picrate and as the N-trifluoroacetyl derivative. The latter was quite different from the trifluoroacetyl derivative prepared from 1. As expected, when the diamidophthalimide 6 was treated with aqueous methanolic hydrochloric acid at 20°C, it was converted into the bisphthalimide 8.On standing in DMSO-d 6 , the free base 3 gives a complex equilibrium mixture whose 1 H NMR spectrum suggests that it contains two bicyclic compounds 9 and 10 (Scheme 2) involving the dihydrofluorouracil system (one enantiomer shown), a small amount of 3, and also the base 1. The formation of the bicyclic compounds mirrors the reactions of similar 1-(3-aminopropyl)-5-fluorouracils 12 and related compounds. 13 The presence of the bicyclic compounds is shown by the appearance of two 1 H NMR double doublet peaks at 4.98 ppm (J = 46.7 and 8.0 Hz) and 5.15 ppm (J = 45.7 and 5.0 Hz), which are characteristic of the CHF proton. The assigned structures are based on a mechanism that involves attack by the amino group on the 6-position of the uracil so that the original H-1 and the newly formed bridgehead proton are cis. The major bicyclic isomer 9 is formed if the amino group...