A concise and environmentally
friendly route for the synthesis
of diverse indenodihydropyridines (
3
) via a cascade reaction
of 1,1-eneamines (
1
) with benzylidene-1
H
-indene-1,3(2
H
)-diones (BIDs) (
2
) in
ethanol media was developed. The targeted compounds were efficiently
obtained by only filtration without any further post-treatment. In
the one-step cascade reaction, C–C and C–N bonds were
constructed. In addition, when 1,4-dioxane was used as a solvent and
the mixture of 1,1-eneamines (
1
) was refluxed with benzylidene-1
H
-indene-1,3(2
H
)-diones (BIDs) (
2
) for about 12 h, indenopyridine compounds (
4
) were
produced. Two kinds of indenopyridine derivatives
3
–
4
resulted from alternative solvents and temperatures. The
reaction had the following features: mild temperature, atom economy,
high yields, and potential biological activity of the product.