Iron (III) trifluoromethanesulfonate [Fe (OTF)3] has been proven to be an effective catalyst in the synthesis of 2-phenylquinoline-4-carboxylic acid by the Doebner reaction using one-pot pyruvic acid, aniline, and benzaldehyde. This method shows attractive characteristics including concise one-pot conditions, high atom economy, very limited energy consumption, and the sequential catalytic process requires only a catalytic (15 mol%) amount of Fe (OTf)3 with short reaction periods (3 h) . Meanwhile, the catalyst was easily recovered from the reaction system and reused smoothly with only a little loss of activity.