Ammonium carbamate and ammonium hydrogen carbonate were used as very effective solid ammonia sources to prepare different (aminoalkyl)naphthols and (aminoalkyl)quinolinols in ethanol and water as solvents under microwave conditions in modified three-component Mannich reactions. The products were obtained in excellent yields in one-pot reactions.In the past decade, modified three-component Mannich reactions, based on the aminoalkylation of 2-or 1-naphthol as the C-H acid, have become considerably important for the formation of C-C bonds under mild experimental conditions. 1 The syntheses of the aminonaphthols obtained in this way differ according to the nitrogen starting material: (a) by use of primary or secondary amines, secondary or tertiary aminonaphthols have been synthetized; 2-9 (b) with ammonia as source, primary aminonaphthols have been prepared. [10][11][12][13][14][15] The areas of application of these aminonaphthols depend on the nature of the amino group; the enantiomers of secondary and tertiary aminonaphthols have been successfully applied as chiral catalysts in the enantioselective alkylation or arylation of benzaldehyde, 2-9 while primary aminonaphthols have been transformed into heterocyclic compounds, 10-12 subsequent condensation with different aldehydes furnishing interesting model compounds for examining the ring-chain tautomeric behavior of naphthoxazines. 13-18 On the other hand, the hypotensive and bradycardiac effects of 1-(aminomethyl)-2-naphthol derivatives have been evaluated, 18 and the syntheses of a wide variety of this type of compounds have recently been achieved through the hydrolysis of 1-(amidomethyl)-2-naphthols. 19 The overall yields of the desired aminonaphthols in the classical Betti reaction (starting from naphthol, methanolic ammonia, and the corresponding aldehyde, followed by acidic hydrolysis of the intermediate naphthoxazine) have been slightly improved by means of small modifications in the synthesis, e.g. by hydrolysis of the intermediate naphthoxazine without any workup, and by crystallization of the final aminonaphthol hydrochloride with ethyl acetate. However, the applications of these methods are still hampered by one or more disadvantages, such as the use of methanolic ammonia and unsatisfactory yields.Since (aminoalkyl)naphthols have potential pharmacological activity, our present aim was primarily to improve the yields of these compounds and to increase the rates of the reactions by applying ammonium carbamate or ammonium hydrogen carbonate (as thermally decomposable solid ammonia sources) and microwave conditions in onepot syntheses. Further aims were to extend this method to the preparation of new (aminoalkyl)naphthols and to use N-containing naphthol analogues such as quinolinols instead of naphthols. 15,17 We began our study with the synthesis of 1-[amino(phenyl)methyl]-2-naphthol (4a) ( Table 1). As the first step, we tested ammonium acetate and formate as solid ammonium sources in comparison to a methanolic ammonia solution. Microwave irradiation is oft...